Sony's 3D TV vision

Sony Corp Executive Deputy President Hiroshi Yoshioka and Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer smile as they show the company's latest products during a press conference in Tokyo in this file photo. A third to a half of Sony Corp TV sets sold annually will be packed with 3D features by the fiscal year ending March 2013, Yoshioka said yesterday.

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A third to a half of the Sony Corp TV sets sold annually will be packed with 3D features by the fiscal year ending March 2013, a senior executive said yesterday.

But Sony Executive Deputy President Hiroshi Yoshioka acknowledged that what Sony may really need for its money-losing TV business is its own display technology and the ability to make its own TV displays.

Sony has fallen behind in flat-panel TV technology to rivals like Samsung Electronics Co of South Korea.

Yoshioka acknowledged that having to buy panels from Samsung was one reason why his Tokyo-based company lags in flat-panel TVs that use a new kind of backlight called LED - an innovation that can produce super-slim TVs and clearer images. Samsung has scored success with its LED backlight TV sets.

Yoshioka said in hindsight the panel joint venture with Samsung produced difficulties despite some of the benefits.

"They were a competitor," he said of Samsung, while declining to give details on when Sony may have its own displays.

Yoshioka hinted Sony was planning an upgrade of a different kind of technology called organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs, which are different from LED TVs.

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