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LAS VEGAS (CES, Booth #N109), Jan. 7, 2004 — Near record-setting holiday sales, significant audio-video advancements, and a host of "like no other" products and technologies were among the highlights Sony presented to the news media here today at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show.

The news conference was hosted by Sony Electronics President and Chief Operating Officer Hideki "Dick" Komiyama, following a greeting by Sony's two-legged robot, QRIO™, who is serving as the company's global technology ambassador. Among the examples of Sony's design and engineering prowess that were presented were new developments in "location free" broadband LCD televisions, a new electronic music download service with more than a dozen companion playback devices, and some incredibly sleek digital imaging products.

According to Komiyama, Sony Electronics achieved double-digit sales growth in the third quarter encompassing the holiday season.

"In particular, our consumer electronics business approached record-setting levels, with the majority of key product categories growing in healthy double digits," he added. "Sony is not only committed to being the industry leader, but also to expanding our lead."

The Corporation's global President and Group Chief Operating Officer, Kunitake Ando was also on hand to reinforce Sony's global leadership commitment. Said Ando: "The world expects leading-edge innovation from Sony. After all, it's in our `DNA' to challenge new frontiers like no other."

Locationfree™ TV: The Next Frontier

In an exciting new departure for television, Sony announced here today a 12-inch portable broadband touch screen LCD TV with the industry's first dual-band wireless connection for location- and PC-free TV viewing or Internet browsing. In addition to streaming video, accessing email and displaying digital photos, the unit can control A/V components throughout the home. And when introduced later this year, it will offer an additional smaller portable monitor for video enjoyment on the go.

Sony's exclusive all-digital WEGA EngineTM system, which is incorporated in all of its high definition television models, was also emphasized as a trigger for the company's widening leadership position in the U.S. television market.

The company also called attention to its comprehensive approach to DVD with its new line-up of dual-format DVD +/- RW recorders. The flagship model comes with a generous hard drive, 24X dubbing speed and an electronic program guide for simple pre-programming. Sony also introduced a wireless DVD Dream® System to minimize home theater cable clutter.

In its booth, Sony previewed a Blu Laser-based Blu-Ray Disc ROM player for enjoying high-definition digital video content. Sony was the first company to launch a Blu-Ray recorder, which is currently on the market in Japan.

Mobile Video Capture, Viewing

With its intuition for making sophisticated technology accessible and user-friendly, Sony addressed two new examples of mobile video devices, one for capture and one for playback.

Highlighted among the launch of 10 new MiniDV, D8 and Hi8 camcorders, Sony introduced the Handycam® Station that comes with a new MiniDV Handycam camcorder (model #DCR-PC109). It is a charging station that answers the questions: "Where's the camcorder?" and "Are the batteries charged?" It also serves double-duty as a connection cradle for TV playback.

And for DVD on the road, the company unveiled two mobile DVD Dream systems, an installed model with a nine-inch LCD and a portable model that can be moved from car to car with a six-inch LCD. Both have headphone jacks and wireless connectivity to broadcast audio from the car's stereo system.

High-Capacity, Low-Cost Digital Music Playback

Sony provided details about a new high-capacity MiniDisc format called HiMD™ that can store up to 45 hours of high-quality digital music on a single $7, one-gigabyte disc when recording at 48kbps. Four pocket-sized HiMD Walkman® playback devices were introduced, each capable of transferring music at up to 100X speed*, along with two NetMD™ Walkman digital music players, a flash-based Network Walkman player and nine new ATRAC® CD Walkman players, starting at $60.

Launching this spring, Sony also provided a sneak peek of its new music download service for the U.S market called Connect®. Aggregating content from the major labels, as well as independent and international labels, the Connect service will offer more than 500,000 titles for 99 cents per track. With an installed base of more than two and a half million Walkman® devices that are compatible with the service, Connect has clearly been designed with the Walkman product user in mind.

Information Technology Elegantly Designed

With an eye toward entertainment and design, Sony also demonstrated two new ultra-bright LCD computer displays, new LCD projectors, and an ultra-slim "extreme" VAIO® notebook PC, along with its elegant line of all-in-one VAIO desktop models.

Sony, a pioneer in data storage and recording media, also presented its dual-layer DVD recording technology, based on a new drive that enables users to store up to four hours of digital video on one disc.