Sony Corp. Chairman Howard Stringer forecast 3-D movies, pictures and games will be the electronics maker's next $10 billion business, challenging investors and analysts who say the technology isn't ready to become mainstream.
The maker of Bravia televisions and PlayStation 3 game consoles said Thursday 3-D-related products, excluding content, will generate more than ¥1 trillion in the 12 months ending in March 2013. The Tokyo-based company will begin offering TVs, Blu-ray players and game consoles that adopt the technology starting next fiscal year, it said.
Stringer's bet that 3-D will spread from the movie theater to the living room highlights part of his strategy to revive a company that's forecasting its first back-to-back annual losses in half a century. The move may signal a shift in focus as the Welsh-born executive nears his target of cutting ¥330 billion in costs by eliminating 20,000 jobs and shutting 10 factories.