Sony continues quarterly losing streak
Continuing its string of quarterly losses, Sony suffered a net loss of 26.3 billion yen ($292 million) for its second quarter, reported the company on Friday.
Compared with a profit of 20.8 billion yen a year ago, this marked Sony's fourth straight quarterly downturn.
Sales for the quarter that ended September 30 also took a spill, dropping 19.8 percent to 1.66 trillion yen ($18.26 billion) from 2.07 trillion yen in the year-ago quarter.
Recent cost cuts and hot sales of the PlayStation 3 game console both provided a shot in the arm.
But Sony was hurt by a downturn in sales for the venerable PlayStation 2 despite its recent claim that the PS2 was "showing no signs of slowing down." Weak demand for the Vaio line of PCs also dragged down the quarter.
As a result, revenue in the Networked Product and Services division, which includes Sony Computer Entertainment, fell 24.2 percent to 352.6 billion yen from 465.2 billion yen in the year-ago quarter.
Other segments also upset the bottom line.
The Consumer Products and Devices business, which includes TVs and cameras, watched its sales plummet 36.5 percent to 799.9 billion yen from 1.25 trillion yen a year ago. Sales were down for Sony's Bravia HDTVs due to intense price competition and the higher value of the yen. The company's Cybershot digital cameras also were impacted by a decline in unit sales and the appreciation of the yen.
Lower sales both in the theater and at home hurt Sony's Entertainment division, with revenue down 30.4 percent to 136.4 billion yen from 196.1 billion yen in 2008's second quarter.
Sony Ericsson also affected the quarter with sales of 1.6 million euros ($2.36 million), a 42 percent decline from 2.8 million euros in the year-ago quarter. An ongoing drag on Sony's earnings, the cell phone maker has struggled to turn a profit in recent years.
One bright spot was Sony's music business, which enjoyed a 147 percent boost in revenue to 124.5 billion yen, stemming in part from sales of Michael Jackson's product catalog, following the entertainer's death in June.
Despite the quarterly loss, results narrowly surpassed expectations, prompting Sony to boost its forecast for the full fiscal year. The company now is eyeing a loss of 95 billion yen for fiscal 2009 versus its prior forecast of a 120 billion yen deficit. Sony lost 98.9 billion yen in fiscal 2008.
Sony recently announced that the PlayStation 3 will offer Netflix streaming, a move it hopes will bump sales of the game console even higher.
Lance Whitney wears a few different technology hats--journalist, Web developer, and software trainer. He's a contributing editor for Microsoft TechNet Magazine and writes for other computer publications and Web sites. You can follow Lance on Twitter at @lancewhit. Lance is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and he is not an employee of CNET. 
I always wonder how much money Sony looses on their stores, over here they almost always seems to be empty, over priced and have staff with little product knowledge or sales drive. It must cost them a fortune to have these stores if they never sell anything.
Death to sony, may they rot in hell.
Whatever problems they are having, they have brought on themselves.
Without Sony many of the products we rely on so heavily would simply not be possible.
Pioneer and Panasonic, and arguably Samsung, make better or as-good TVs for a lower price.
Nikon and Canon make better cameras.
Apple makes better portable music players.
Most major cellphone/smartphone manufacturers make better phones than Sony Ericsson.
Sony PCs and Laptops are also overpriced and not worth the premium.
Even the "Playstation" brand is eroded, and is no longer the premium game system.
The Nintendo DS has gained almost 70% of the handheld console market compared to the PSPs 30% and the Playstation3 lags behind the Wii and XBox in sales.
I used to buy a lot of Sony products but havent bought anything manufactured by Sony in the last few years as their products are not worth the premium price any more.
see: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vizio-licenses-digital-tv-patent-portfolio-to-sony-67033687.html
Also, VIZIO is the first and only Connected HDTV manufacturer to develop its own QWERTY remote control. http://www.hdtvreview.com/news/2009/09/15/vizio-demonstrates-qwerty-remote-control-at-cedia/comment-page-1/
The point remains, Sony is an important contributor to the CE market and without them we would lose a big technology contributer.
As for Vizio, calling them innovative is a stretch, they rarely contribute new IP, mainly relying on proven designs innovated by companies like Sony. They contract nearly 100% of their development, design, and production to third parties. This keeps prices low but puts the burden of creation and innovation on the backs of companies like Sony, Panasonic, and other 1st tier manufacturers. They also have no environmental record of note that I'm aware of.
What would we be out, Blue Ray? That would be awful, or not since HDDVD's would still be around. And who uses Blue Ray anyway? Hopefully all optical media and it's problems will soon go the way of the doe doe.
And Sony is the Death of innovation, not the lifeblood. What kind of innovative company has a CEO that makes statements like "nothing good has ever come from the internet' and yes CEO of Sony Pictures, Michael Lynton did actually say that.
As for your environmental argument, almost all other major competitors to sony have as good or better report cards in that area.
sony treats all of its customers as if they were thieves. It's like if every time you went to Wallmart you had to be striped searched to leave. And I'm not arguing in support of piracy, but if you cripple your hardware and content so bad that it makes pirated versions more valuable than the originals, then you've brought that problem on yourself.
I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until sony is closed and their assets sold of. Death to sony and the evil empire.
Take away Sony and you wouldn't have the concept of a portable media player (remember the Walkman), there'd have been no compact disc (know what that is?), 3.5" floppy disks, OLED screens, and on and on. Not to mention all of the professional technologies behind the scenes that make high definition recording and broadcasts possible, find a television station that doesn't use Sony cameras.
Environmentally speaking Sony was offering electronics recycling and reduced substance usage long before competitors like Samsung adopted similar policies. Check their web site for details.
As for CD's, Phillips did the vast majority of development in that area, Sony only developed the error check. So what, we would have had to wait another year if they weren't involved? OLED screens maybe, but they're not exactly something that I or really anyone else that I know of relies on everyday as you claim. They might have came up with 3.5 inch floppies, but they were nothing more than an improvement on existing technology. If they hadn't someone else would have, once again not exactly life changing. As for the Walkman, first mainstream, but not the first. Google Norelco Carry-Corder.
And regardless of what they may have done in the past they are today the most anti consumer company in the world. Microsoft isn't exactly my favorite company, but they are arguably much better today than they have been in the past, not true for sony.
I'm starting to believe you work for sony, you're wealth of partial and disinformation would fit their company profile quite well.
- by Jamie_Foster October 30, 2009 5:14 PM PDT
- I think Sony made a huge error in buying CBS records and the Columbia film studio in the late 1980s. The only top performing content business was the Sony owned games studios which still make top games like Killzone 2, Unchartered 2, WipEout HD and Gran Turismo 5.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(15 Comments)Sony's better cassette Walkmans, and then later discmans and MD players were superb. But they didn't want to embrace MP3 until it was too late. They stuck with ATRAC and the horrible sonicstage software. Apple then ate their lunch.
In the analogue TV days the Triniton was the gold standard along with the Mitsubishi Diamondtron. But they again stuck with CRTs whilst Fujitsu, Pioneer and Panasonic were setting the standard for Plasma and Sharp, Philips and later Samsung were doing the business with LCDs.
I own the PS3 slim and It is an excellent product. The quality of hardware engineering blows the 360 out of the water. But it has taken 3 years to become affordable. That was because Sony were determined to include BR. The irony is that 3rd party games don't really make use of the extra storage.