Sony's design heritage shines through as it wins 17 iF (International Forum) product design awards including three coveted gold awards

Dubai, March 17 2009: Sony announced today that is has won 17 International Forum Design (iF) product design awards, including three coveted gold awards, at a ceremony held at the CeBit trade fair in Hanover, Germany. Honouring exceptional design for over half a century, the iF design award 2009 attracted almost 3,000 entries from 39 different countries. iF is an independent design institution and has a longstanding reputation for supporting and recognising design within industry.

Three of only 50 gold awards were given to the Cyber-shot™ DSC-T700 and DSC-T77 digital still cameras, and Active Style Headphones Series. The remaining 14 iF product design awards won by Sony embraced many different Sony product categories and included awards for BRAVIA EX1 Picture Frame LCD TV, XEL-1 the world's first OLED TV, DAV-F500 Home Theatre System, VGF-CP1 Digital Photo Frame and WALKMAN® S Series video MP3 player.

The gold award winning products highlight how innovative technology and unique design is fundamental to the Sony product development process of ensuring quality and reliability.

Designed to be thin, the Cyber-shot™ T700 has a clean brushed metal appearance which is elegant and minimal. It includes a photo album feature that recognises when photographs are taken and indexes them into folders automatically, making sorting through all those pictures far quicker.

The credit-card sized Cyber-shot™ T77 is covered with stainless steel plates and is only 13.9mm thick. Benefitting from 'Intelligent Scene Recognition,' it automatically adjusts picture settings from portrait, to landscape as well as macro mode, depending on the type of photo you are attempting to take.

Designed with energy in mind, the Active Style Headphones Series are for people on the move who want a portable stylish product. The ear hugging design ensures the headphones always stay in place.

iF product design gold awards

Digital Still Camera Cyber-shot™ DSC-T700

Digital Still Camera Cyber-shot™ DSC-T77

Active Style Headphones Series

iF product design awards 2009

BRAVIA EX1 Picture Frame LCD TV

OLED TV XEL-1

Home Theater System DAV-F500

Digital Camcorder Handycam® DCR-SR85/75/65/55/46/45/36/35(E) & Soft Carrying Case LCS-SRC

HDV Camcorder HVR-Z7

Digital SLR Camera ?350

Digital SLR Camera ?900

Digital Photo Frame Canvas Online VGF-CP1

Digital Photo Frame S-Frame DPF-V Series

Active Speaker System Sountina NSA-PF1

Headphones MDR-EX500

Linear PCM Recorder PCM-D50

Digital Audio Player WALKMAN® S Series

USB Flash Drive Micro Vault USM-LX/L Series

The iF product design award 2009 were chosen by a judging panel of 28 renowned experts to determine which companies and designers have met the iF criteria of design calibre.

Since 1954 an iF Award has been considered one of the most respected honours in the design industry. The competition attracts agencies and their clients, corporations, designers, architects, and entrepreneurs from around the world. The level of competition has been higher than ever with entries from an additional four countries since 2007.

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About Sony Gulf FZE
Sony Gulf FZE is a 100% subsidiary of Sony Corporation and is the regional headquarters for the Middle East and Africa regions. The company is engaged in the business of Sony Consumer Electronics, VAIO laptop computers, Computer Peripherals, Data media, Recording Media and Energy (Batteries), Mobile Electronics (Car Audio) and Computer Entertainment (PlayStation) products in more than 40 countries in the region.

Apart from stock operations in the Jebel Ali Free Zone Establishment in Dubai, Sony Gulf FZE leads execution of various logistics, sales, marketing, advertising and customer services activities through its business partners and representative offices. A network of representative offices in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Kenya along with more than 250 service centres reinforces Sony's presence in key markets in the region.

For further information, please visit www.sony-mea.com

For media inquiries, please contact:
Neil D'Sylva
Sony Gulf FZE
Tel:  971 4 881 54 88
Fax: 971 4 881 78 08
Email: Neil.Dsylva@ap.sony.com

Saffana Michael/Rukshana D'Mello
Weber Shandwick MENA
T: +971 4 321 00 77
F: +971 4 321 17 11
Email: rukshana.dmello@ws-mena.com

© Press Release 2009