Japan's Sony Corp is expected to post a 15 percent fall in October-December profit on Thursday, hurt by a stronger yen and tough price competition in the flat TV market.

Rival Panasonic recorded a dip in quarterly profit earlier this week, blaming falling prices, especially for TVs, while South Korea's LG Electronics suffered a loss in the same period and Samsung Electronics booked its lowest profit in six quarters.

The four companies have a combined global share of about 60 percent of the flat-screen TV market by revenue.

The consensus estimate for Sony's quarterly profit was 124.2 billion yen in a poll of 9 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, compared with a 146.9 billion yen profit in the same quarter a year earlier.

The maker of Vaio PCs and PlayStation game consoles forecasts a full year operating profit of 200 billion yen, lower than a consensus estimate of 212.9 billion yen in a poll of 24 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares in Sony have fallen more than 20 percent since an 18-month high of 3,265 yen reached in March last year, largely reflecting the yen's rise against the dollar and euro.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Nathan Layne)

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