Sony aims for Europe PCs

Consumer product vendor Sony is taking another stab at the European PC market, as it prepares to launch into the UK by August, Germany and Austria by autumn and France by Christmas 1999.

But observers warned that it will only succeed with a successful distribution channel in place. No details of a channel strategy have emerged.

The Japanese giant first attempted to sell PCs in Europe in 1996 when it was expected to launch a notebook range at the Cebit Home exhibition in Cologne. However, following a year-and-a-half delay, Sony will now launch notebooks and desktops.

But the industry was sceptical of the impact Sony was likely to have.

Its belated move into PCs mirrors that of Toshiba, which also had hopes of capitalising on its branding power within the consumer electronics sector.

Rana Mainee, European Market analyst at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), an expert in issues of branding, questioned Sony's chances of success in the UK. 'If you look at Toshiba you realise that brand success in the consumer sector is no guarantee of the same within the PC sector,' he said.

He added that historically, Japanese PC vendors have lacked an understanding of the channel to the advantage of their US rivals. 'US brands and suppliers probably have a better understanding of the channel than Japanese vendors - Packard Bell/NEC being a case in point. But that is not necessarily the case with the Taiwanese firms. They do tend to have an understanding,' he remarked.

Sony UK was unavailable for comment.