Sony 2003 Annual Report Download - page 123

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Consolidated Financial Information 2003
37
Research and Development
Recognizing that research and development are indispensable for business growth, Sony actively pursues
various technical themes, including technologies that support current services and those that will create new markets.
Themes that require rapid commercialization are handled individually by each business unit; themes that have the
potential for commercialization within two to three years are pursued by the development divisions of network
companies; and strategic future-oriented themes are handled by corporate laboratories under the direct management
of Sony Corporate headquarters. This arrangement increases the ability of Sony to react in a rapid and flexible
manner to changes in the operating environment.
Sony’s thirteen corporate laboratories are listed below:
Content & Applications Laboratory (content related application technology)
Broadband Applications Laboratories (networking related application technology)
Networked CE Development Laboratories (consumer application technology)
Ubiquitous Technology Laboratories (communications and security technology)
Storage Technology Laboratories (storage technology)
Display Technology Laboratories (display technology)
Materials Laboratories (materials and device technology)
Sony Corporate Laboratories Europe (various fields)
A3 Research Center (signal processing technology)
Intelligent Dynamics Laboratory (robotics)
Fusion Domain Laboratory (advanced convergence technology)
Material Science Laboratory (fundamental materials and device technology)
Institute of Environmental Research
In addition, research and development is carried out in close conjunction with two independent research
laboratories: Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. (fundamental research and user interface research) and
Sony-Kihara Research Center, Inc. (three-dimensional computer graphics and image processing technologies).
Research and development expenses for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003 increased 9.9 billion yen, or 2.3
percent, to 443.1 billion yen, compared with the previous fiscal year. The ratio of research and development
expenses to sales (excluding the Financial Services segment) increased from 6.1 percent to 6.4 percent. The bulk of
research and development expenses were incurred in the Electronics and Game segments; expenses in the
Electronics segment decreased 3.1 billion yen, or 0.8 percent, to 380.3 billion yen, and expenses in the Game
segment increased 13.2 billion yen, or 27.4 percent, to 61.5 billion yen. In the Electronics segment, approximately 66
percent of expenses were for the development of new product prototypes while the remaining approximately 34
percent were for the development of mid- to long-term new technologies in such areas as semiconductors,