Picture Quality, Value Put Sony PTV On Top

[Gregg Lengling]

By Greg Tarr
TWICE
7/21/2003
 
   Sidebars:
Top 10 Projection TVs
Success Story: Sony KP51WS500 Projection TV
Retailers Point To Picture, Price
 
 
PARK RIDGE, N.J.— According to Sony, strong picture performance, a popular screen size and a reasonable price point contributed to making the KP51WS500 the top-selling rear-projection television in the 2002-03 model year, according to NPD market research.

The strong popularity of the model pushed Sony back out on top of the rear-projection television market during the year, replacing Hitachi with the industry's most popular rear-projection SKU.

"The feature set in that model was strong, and it went straight to No. 1 and stayed there," recalled Tim Alessi, Sony Televison/Digital Media Marketing Division Visual Network Product Company director. "Retailers that didn't have it broadly distributed at the start, soon saw the demand for the product and moved to have it prominently positioned on all of their display floors."

Sony's product development last year was so strong that it helped the company take the win, place and show positions with the top-three-selling rear-projection models. The second-top-selling model was the KP51WS500's 57W-inch sister model (also with a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio) — the KP57WS500 — followed by the KP53HS30 with a 4:3 aspect ratio.

In developing the WS500 series of products, Sony stressed improvements in cosmetic design, picture performance and value, Alessi said.

"This particular model had no extras — such as MemoryStick playback capability or things like that. It just seemed to strike a chord with consumers for its overall value," Alessi said.

Elevating the appeal of the model was "an affordable" $2,000 suggested retail price, combined with the mystique added to any Sony-branded TV set.

On the availability side, the model benefited from a very wide distribution status. It was openly displayed in national accounts ranging from Best Buy and Circuit City to regional A/V specialists and custom installers.

Key features in the product including HDTV (1080i) compatibility, a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, Digital Reality Creation II Multifunctional video processing, DVI-HDCP secure digital interface and dual-tuner NTSC picture-in-picture with Sony's Multi Image Driver (MID) circuitry enabling the display of two image formats on the screen at the same time.

It also offered two broadband component video inputs for connection to most outboard digital tuners.

As for the new WS510 model line that recently started shipping to dealers, Alessi said, "We're hoping to continue the momentum for the mass market. The step-up will be to integrated HDTV tuning, and the step-up from there will be to our Grand Wega series [LCD-based rear projection]. Based on pricing and the popularity of the WS500, I anticipate that the WS510 will be able to pick up where this model left off."

 
Top 10 Projection TVs
Dollar sales at retail, June 2002-June 2003

SONY KP51WS500
SONY KP57WS500
SONY KP53HS30
HITACHI 51UWX20
HITACHI 57UWX20
MITSUBISHI WS55311
SONY KP46WT500
PANASONIC PT53WX42
SONY KP57WV600
TOSHIBA 50H82
Source: The NPD Group ©TWICE 2003
 
Success Story: Sony KP51WS500 Projection TV
Suggest Retail: $2,000

Key Features:

51W-inch 16:9 screen
High-definition 1,080i capability
Digital Reality Creation II Multifunctional up-conversion circuitry
DVI-HDCP digital input
2 HD component video inputs
Dual-tuner NTSC picture-in-picture
Multi-image Driver (MID) circuitry capable of displaying two picture formats on one screen.
 
Retailers Point To Picture, Price
By Greg Tarr

NEW YORK — Broad-based distribution, ample supply and a strong feature package at a competitive price helped Sony's KP51WS500 become the top-selling rear-projection TV in 2002-03, retailers told TWICE.

"Among all the Sony SKUs that we carried, for the price that model had most of the same features as the upscale stuff that I had on my floor," said Frank Roshinski, Tweeter Home Entertainment Group senior merchandise manager.

After being bested by Hitachi for the top-selling rear-projection TV a year earlier, Sony "really retrenched to be in this business and regain the market share that they once had. That's why this set was so well featured for the price. It was a very, very competitively priced TV, " he added. "I remember being at their assembly plant in Pittsburgh when they had their presentation on this TV, and they said the WS series with its price and performance package was going to get them back the market share they lost a year prior, and it did."

Another key factor in the unit's success was its availability. Sony "made a lot of them," said Roshinski.

"In the past, they have made some killer TVs, but with their broad-based distribution they seemed to upset more people than they fulfilled," he said.

As for its demonstrability, he said the KP51WS500 "had a wideband video amplifier that really made the picture pop."

He pointed out the model fit into the critical 50W- to 55W-inch screen size, which remains the largest selling rear-projection TV segment.

Ken Yessin, owner of Brookfield, Conn.-based Sounds Incredible, agreed that Sony made significant improvements in performance, price and distribution in the WS Series.

"In general, the Sony projection televisions that year were far superior to what they had the year before," Yessin said. "They made big strides in the way the picture looked. The year before, they were weak — not super weak in sales because it's Sony and Sony sells."

Yessin said the new models improved considerably in color-saturation performance and image clarity.

On the back-end, he added, Sony "continued to promote the product, as most manufacturers do, with 12-month financing programs. Today, customers almost expect there to be a financing program."

As for price, "the bang for the buck was much more aggressive, and as the year wore on the price continued to erode," he said. "They had a $200 instant rebate, then they brought the price of it down $200 — as did almost all of the manufacturers."