“If the market continues to rise, it could sell around 480,000 laptops, compared to 500,000 in 2008,” Fujioka said. Romanian consumers have increasingly moved away from desktop PCs, according to data from research company IDC: in 2004 almost 90% of PCs sold were desktops, last year they did not account for even as much as 30% of sales.
Under the circumstances, Sony intends to boost its Romanian market share from 3% last year to 4.5 to 5% this year. “In the first quarter, Sony’s sales in Romania climbed more than 50%,” said Fujioka. If the market gets to 480,000 units and Sony achieves its 6% market share target, the Japanese manufacturer could sell 24,000 units, compared to around 13,000 in 2010.