4/27/11 Update and correction
Sony is a legendary name in television. They revolutionized color TV picture quality with their Trinitron picture tubes. From the 1970s to the present, Sony created dozens of innovative designs.
Today marks the beginning of a shift at Sony, the transition from an end-to-end TV manufacturer to a provider of television products that address a variety of different market segments.
According to a report out of Taiwan by Digitimes,
over the past year, Sony began contracting with Foxconn, a major Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, for TV assembly.  Foxconn is now in the process of upgrading their capabilities, in order to become a complete production service that also offers ODM (original design manufacturing).  This initial step will enable them to broaden their role in the production of those entry level Sony TV models that are sold through Wal-Mart, warehouse clubs and other discount chains.
A statement to HD Guru from a Sony Electronics corporate communications spokesperson in the U.S. confirmed that the story “…refers to our strategic decision to produce televisions that compete in the low-price, high-volume market segment in which many of our competitors already deploy models.â€Â
Sony closed and sold off its TV assembly lines during the last few years as part of a company reorganization. The report adds that Sony plans to use Foxconn’s manufacturing and design services to land orders for about 14 million Bravia LCD HDTVs in 2011.
To support other market segments, Sony is in the process of updating its televisions for 2012 and beyond. Its 2011 TV innovations include: greatly expanded Internet content and services with the addition Netflix, Crackle, Yahoo! Connected TV Store, Moshcam, Billiblog and Hulu Plus.
On the hardware side, Sony’s new for 2011 features are: its exclusive X-reality and X-reality Pro signal processing for crisper cleaner images with all sources including streaming Internet content, Intelligent Peak local LED dimming for deep inky black levels and unique high-end styling with its chiseled “Monolith Design” concept incorporating Corning’s Gorilla Glass, a stronger, thinner, lighter, screen material.
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Regarding what David said….
That’s because Apple more than likely has executives who are stationed in Taiwan purely to monitor what Foxconn is doing.
Sony is not going to do such a thing, they are simply going to be slapping their name on an outsourced product then market it to the unsuspecting public.
So from now on is EVERY single Bravia foxconn made??
How is this any different than what apple does? Apple is praised for having high quality products and yet they use foxconn for some of their products including the iphone. Apple provides the science and engineering and uses higher quality parts but has foxconn assemble them compliant with apples standards
All you Sony fanatics who aren’t concerned about:
1) glare / reflection
2) burn-in
Then grab a Panasonic GT-30 or VT-30 series TV, they are again by far the “Best Bang for Buck” TV’s.
Sony has the best image processing — but their panels lick.
Panasonic (and some high end Toshiba’s that utilize the Cell processor) are the next in line for best image processing.
Samsung and Sharp are tier-2’s when it comes to image quality.
LG is tier-3 when it comes to image quality.
Hi this is shocking. Now i have to think twice before buying or recommending a Sony tv. This is not good for Sony’s Reputation and this is not how they will regain their lost glory and top spot from Samsung electronics. I dont know what they are trying to do to the iconic company known as SONY. Good luck Sony.
As long as they control the process why does it matter what assemble line it comes from.If Sony does the Engineering and operating specs and requires those to be meet why cant they still compete.I bet not one of you Sony doggers are real TV techs.Sony still does the best after the sale support in the business. I have over 43 years in the TV service industry and Sony is the best at real service.A few weeks ago I read a review of 8 brands of 3d TVs some one did. They said Don’t buy a Sony 3D because you have to go through 5 or 6 menus to turn off and on 3D, when all you have to do is hit 1 button on the remote that says 3D.So ask the real pros and you will get the correct answer!
Saw this one coming. Sony has sucked for years. The old sony is gone.
Sony missed the opportunity years ago to transition from CRT to flat panel manufacturing. Hitachi, Fujitsu, Pioneer, JVC, and others have been squeezed out by Samsung and LG. Panasonic is shifting panel production to China. Sony has lasted longer because they had farther to slide.
Give it a few more years and the Chinese will be doing the same thing to LG and Samsung.
When Sony was run by engineers who had a love for electronics, you got all the great innovative products for which Sony was famous. Start with transistorized B/W tv back in the 50’s, the world standard Trinitron ctv, the U matic and later betamax vtr’s, audio products such as the Walkman and audio CD’s the list goes on and on.
The company today is a shell of its former self, run by I’m sure some very talented money managers. Who in the short term will do very well. Sad to say the glory days of Sony are over.
Packard used to manufacture world class automobiles, they too lost sight of what made them great, where are today? I hope that Sony is making the right decision, time will tell.
Here is the non-politically correct spin:
In other, words Sony is going to be just another re-packager of cheap chinese cr*p TVs. Great.
Also If you remember, Foxconn was in the news some time ago for having working conditions so horrible that their workers either died or in some cases committed suicide. With that kind of morale, QA is not going to be the best.
Sony is clearly doing this because they only care about profits, not a quality product.
What a shame! Look what happened to the pioneer, 0f TV, and top name in color TV, RCA? So goes SONY….nothing more than a distributor
What happened to Sony…no boloney?
Even after the correction, it still doesn’t make sense. Why would i buy a foxconn (i mean sony) tv even if sony throws in some yahoo widgets … great…
LG and Samsung are just killing it because of their desire to be on top. And Samsung and Panasonic are competing for high end plasma. Where’s Sony’s competitive spirit? And speaking of which, the 2011 Sharp models are looking better than ever.
This is stunning if true. It seems like a complete defeat and admission of failure. It’s akin to Hoover getting out of vacuum cleaner design/engineering and only selling a nameplate to some Chinese company (which happened a few years ago).
MY dad has been a sony fanatic since I was born. I’m now 28. This year will be the first year that his main TV in the liveing room will not be a Sony set. Also his first plasma. 65VT30. If this is what sony needs to do to compete thats fine, but time will tell if there name is strong enough without Sony engineering behind it. Best of luck to them.
Does this mean that Sony TV quality will go down???
Does this mean they are having a tough time competing with the Vizio brand of TV sets???
This just blows..
RIP Sony.
This is lame. They should have invested in LCD manufacturing instead of depending on Sharp and Samsung. Sony used to make the best LCD’s. If I’m not buying a sony designed sony manufactured set, then wtf am I buying… might as well buy the oem brand.