Pioneer have reported that because of severe price competition its third-quarter net profits had fallen 80 percent, to 1.79 billion yen (£9.2 million), with sales down .09 percent from the previous year. The electronics giant said it is slashing its sales and profit outlook for the fiscal year, which ends in March, and projects a net loss of 8 billion yen ($77.3 million) and an operating profit of 2 billion yen ($19.3 million) on sales of 730 billion yen ($7.05 billion).

Pioneer, headquartered in Tokyo, earlier had forecast 10 billion yen ($96.6 million) in net profit.

The company said stiffer competition and a fast drop in market prices in plasma display televisions, DVD recorders and recordable DVD drives for personal computers had prompted the downward revisions.

Car electronic sales were also down from the previous year, especially because there was lower demand than expected for car navigation systems by Japanese consumers North American drivers, however, spurred a strong increase in sales for those systems.