Japanese electronics manufacturer Sony managed to increase its market share in Romania last year, according to Lucian Radulescu, Sony’s Country Manager for Romania & Republic of Moldova.

“Last year was a good year for us. We managed to grow faster than the market, so we increased our market share,” Radulescu told Romania-Insider.com. He didn’t go into numbers.

Sony is one of the largest players on the local consumer electronics market. The consumer electronics market increased by 19.3% last year, to EUR 348 million, according to market research company Gfk. The fastest growing segments were those of video game consoles and Smart TVs, where Sony is among the top players.

According to Sony representatives, the company is the market leader in the audio electronics market. “Given the information we got from our vending partners as well as Gfk data, we estimate that our market share of the audio segment is between 30% and 35%,” Radulescu said. He added that this market segment also grew last year.

Although the music players sales were negatively impacted by the higher sales of smartphones and tablets, which also contain music player features, other segments of the audio equipment market benefited from this trend.

“The higher sales of tablets and smartphones also helped the audio equipment market,” he said. Sales of headphones and speaker docks are on a positive trend.

Sony recently launched its new range of Hi-Res audio devices in Romania. It includes Walkman music players, headphones, amplifiers and receivers, as well as Home Cinema systems and wireless speakers. High-Resolution Audio refers to a collection of digital processes and formats that allow the encoding and playback of music using higher sampling rates than the standards used in CDs.

“Hi-Res for the audio segment is the equivalent of 4K for the video segment,” Radulescu said. He doesn’t have a sales target for this kind of equipment this year. “We want first to introduce this concept and make it more popular in Romania,” he added.

Overall, Radulescu expects Sony’s sales in Romania to continue on a positive trend, as the overall market will continue to grow. “We may see a lower growth rate compared to previous years, but we still expect the market to increase and for us to have another good year,” he concluded.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com