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48
Sony Corporation Annual Report 2002
Research and Development
Sony believes research and development activities are vital to the growth of its
business. Accordingly, Sony actively undertakes research and development in
various areas. Research and development expenses for the fiscal year ended March
31, 2002 increased 16.5 billion yen, or 4.0 percent, to 433.2 billion yen, compared
with the previous year. However, the ratio of research and development expenses
to sales (excluding the Financial Services segment) was 6.1 percent, which
approximated that of the previous year. With respect to the breakdown of major
research and development expenses, expenses in the Electronics segment were
383.4 billion yen, and expenses in Game amounted to 48.2 billion yen. Of the
expenses in the Electronics segment, approximately 64 percent were for develop-
ment of prototypes of new products and the remainder of approximately 36
percent were for the development of mid-to-long term new technologies in such
areas as semiconductors, communications, and displays. In the Game segment,
R&D expenditures centered on next-generation semiconductor architecture and
network-related technologies.
R&D Organization
Business units are responsible for matters that require rapid introduction to the
market and technology centers handle matters that require lateral coordination.
Sony headquarters is responsible for overall strategic matters.
In order to further strengthen Sony’s positioning for the broadband network era,
in April 2002, Sony reorganized the seven corporate laboratories by integrating them
along technological capabilities. Also, additional research centers were established to
handle specific technologies, creating a total of nine corporate research facilities under
the direct control of headquarters. The role of each is as follows:
■Contents & Applications Laboratory
Creation of content and applications that give birth to new forms of entertain-
ment and lifestyles.
■Broadband Applications Laboratories
Development of application architecture technology for broadband networks
that will differentiate Sony’s next generation businesses and create applications
and services to produce new value.
■Networked CE Development Laboratories
Creation of applications that take advantage of networks thereby adding value
to Sony’s AV products.
■Ubiquitous Technology Laboratories
R&D in systems, content, technology used for privacy protection, communica-
tion systems, and communication technologies required to make the “ubiqui-
tous value network” possible.