Sony: Wal-Mart's early sales push won't work

New York At a press roundtable today, Sony executives said that a Wal-Mart drive to turn Black Friday into a selling season extending to the beginning of November wouldn't work.

Jay Vandenbree, president of the Sony consumer sales company, said that the marketplace already provided good value, adding that, as much as the vendor itself would like to see sales pushed forward into the selling season, neither retailers nor suppliers could dictate when products would sell. "The consumer will have a lot to say about that," he insisted.

In Sony related news, executives said that a lowering of the initial price point on the company's Blue Ray DVD players to $399 would come before the end of the year. The company said it expects to dominate all segments of the HDTV business by the end of the holiday season and that it would come close to doubling the number of its store-within-a-store Sony shops from six currently. Sony also holds out high hopes for its latest generation of Walkman devices, including phones and MP3 players, saying retail acceptance was strong and that the company expects to "take a bite out of the Apple," according to Stan Glasgow, president and coo of Sony Electronics.