Sony Starts Build-to-Order PC Sales in Japan

'VAIO Owner Made' service aimed at high-end customers.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

Japanese customers may now buy a built-to-order Sony PC, including a new model of the company's VAIO T, Sony said Tuesday.

The new service is an attempt by Sony to win customers away from major PC retailers and comes at a time of increasing competition in the local market. Sony can make more money by selling PCs to users directly than by selling them through retailers, said Junji Tsuyuki, senior product producer at Sony's IT and mobile solutions company.

At present, direct sales through Sony's Web site account for roughly half of all the PCs it sells in Japan. The Japanese manufacturer hopes the new service will help it to boost that share, although it would not say by how much.

The service, branded "VAIO Owner Made," will be aimed at high-end PC users. Sony has no plans at present to extend the offer outside Japan, said Tsuyuki.

Mostly Notebooks

PCs can be found in roughly one-third of all Japanese homes today. The vast majority of PC sales are to people replacing a machine or buying an additional computer. Sony said roughly 9 in 10 PCs it sold in the last six months were to such users. As such, PC buyers are becoming more savvy about PC specifications and features and often have a wish-list of features when shopping for a new model.

Sony's build-to-order menu will initially consist of six models, five of which are notebook computers. In all cases, users will be able to choose between the type of Intel processor, either the Home or Professional edition of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, the amount of memory, the capacity of the hard-disk drive, and the type of optical drive. On some machines, choices include the graphics card, capacity of battery, and type of keyboard--Japanese or English.

Orders can be placed via the Internet, by telephone, or through certain Sony shops in Japan.

One of the new models announced Tuesday and available through the build-to-order service or as a preconfigured machine is a new version of the VAIO T. Sony has switched to a multilayer carbon-fiber casing for the top half of the PC, which includes the display panel. This is lighter and more than twice as strong as the previous magnesium case. A switch to an LED backlight and a shift of the display circuit board from behind the screen to underneath the screen mean the new VAIO T's lid is 0.20 inches thick versus 0.36 inches thick for the previous model.

Sony had a 6.8 percent share of the Japanese PC market in the second quarter, said Kanae Maita, principal research analyst at Gartner Japan.