Skip to main content

Is Sony rolling out its promised 'unilateral' pricing strategy?

Is Sony rolling out its promised 'unilateral' pricing strategy?

/

Last month, we reported that Sony was planning to roll out a "unilateral" pricing strategy in the US on April 1st. This would essentially put an absolute minimum on what its retail partners could charge for Sony products, and its starting to look like this new strategy is rolling out as promised.

Share this story

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

sony tv logo
sony tv logo

Last month, we reported that Sony was planning to roll out a "unilateral" pricing strategy in the US on April 1st. This would essentially put an absolute minimum on what its retail partners could charge for Sony products, and its starting to look like this new strategy is rolling out as promised. Some posters on AVS Forum noticed that the price of Sony's 65-inch Bravia X929 HDTV jumped over $1000 overnight on Amazon.com, and a look at price-tracking site Camelcamelcamel.com confirms this jump. Best Buy and B&H are also both selling the TV for within a dollar of this price, with AVS Forum posts claiming this is a major price increase at the latter retailer as well. While there are definitely still variations in the price of Sony's products across the internet, we've found a number of other examples of Sony TVs getting major price increases at Amazon today, with several other retailers showing similar pricing. We knew that 2011 was a bad year for TV makers almost across the board, so we'll see if higher prices help Sony's bottom line.