Sony announced on Thursday that it had no choice but to postpone the launch date of a new camera because the widespread floods in Thailand have affected some of its factories there.
The 24-megapixel mirrorless NEX-7 camera, which Digital Trends took an early look at last month, had been set for a November launch, but the severe flooding in the south-east Asian country has forced the electronics giant to temporarily close two of its three plants there, affecting production.
The manufacture of Sony’s new 24-megapixel Alpha 65 dSLR camera, which has already been released in some countries, has also been adversely affected.
Sony spokesperson George Boyd told the BBC that it was hard to put a timeline on when production might start again. “However, we are taking measures to move production to our third factory in Thailand which is operational and also to other sites,” he said.
Other companies in the electronics field that have factories in Thailand, such as hard drive makers Seagate and Western Digital, have also said production delays are now likely.
Western Digital’s chief executive John Coyne described the disaster as being on “an unprecedented scale.” Earlier in the week Apple boss Tim Cook said he was “virtually certain” there’ll be a shortage of disk drives in the coming months.
The floods have been caused by heavy monsoon rain that started falling back in July. Around nine million people have been affected in more than a third of the country’s provinces. People in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, have also been told to prepare for possible flooding in the coming days. More than 320 people have so far died across the country as a result of the disaster.
[Image courtesy of think4photop / Shutterstock]
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