Toshiba's decision to downgrade the outlook matches similar moves by other Japanese hi-tech icons such as NEC and Sony, and generally reflects the slower and more difficult environment expected this year.

The company said it posted a net profit of 10 billion yen (96 million dollars) in the nine months to December compared with a net loss of 41.4 billion yen a year earlier. Pretax profit hit 26.4 billion yen after a loss of 8.2 billion yen as sales rose 5.6 percent to 4.2 trillion yen.

The downgrade from forecasts made in October "primarily reflects faster-than-anticipated price erosion in semiconductors due to rapid change in the digital consumer market," Toshiba Corp. said in a statement.

For the year to March, Toshiba forecast net profit at 45 billion yen, down from the 50 billion yen projected earlier, with pretax profit at 110 billion yen, down from 130 billion yen, and sales at 5.86 trillion yen, down from 5.87 trillion yen.

Meanwhile, Japanese electronics maker Pioneer said it now expects a loss rather than a profit for the year to March after net earnings fell 69.5 percent to 6.6 billion yen (64 million dollars) in the nine months to December due to severe price competition.

Pioneer Corp. said pretax profit dropped 50.8 percent from a year earlier to 16 billion yen on sales of 541.4 billion yen, up 4.5 percent.

Pioneer said it would likely suffer a net loss of 8.0 billion yen for the year to March, reversing an earlier forecast of 10 billion yen in net profit.

It forecast pretax profit at break even, compared with a profit of 25 billion yen forecast earlier, while it lowered its sales forecast to 730 billion yen from 800 billion yen.

The downward revisions were mainly due to "intensified competition and rapid decline of market prices of our major products such as plasma displays, DVD recorders and recordable DVD drives," it said.

Japanese consumer electronics maker Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. said it posted a net loss in the December quarter, hit by sluggish sales of digital cameras and the damage a killer earthquake had on its chip-making plant.

"Competition in the Japanese digital camera market grew so severe and a slump in domestic sales and falling prices for digital cameras hit us hard," said a Sanyo spokesman.

Its net loss for the three months to December stood at 17.6 billion yenagainst a net profit of 9.9 billion yen a year earlier. Its pretax loss came to 11.9 billion yen, reversing a pretax profit of 18.1 billion yen as revenue fell 5.0 percent to 620.6 billion yen.

For the year to March 2005, Sanyo left its forecasts unchanged at a net loss of 71 billion yen and a pretax loss of 47 billion yen on sales of 2.53 trillion yen.

Last week Japan's top computer maker Fujitsu reported it had plunged into the red in the December quarter and cut its full-year earnings forecasts.

In the Tokyo stock market investor sentiment has been hurt by the darkening technology sector outlook.

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