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Sony (SNE) sees operating profit tumble 47% in latest quarter

Brian White — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:31:00 EST

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

The financial news at Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) just won't stop raining red. The world's second-largest consumer electronics company reported a 47.4% drop in profit for its first quarter. The disappointing quarter was partially blamed on lower cellular handset sales from its part in the Sony Ericsson joint venture, but there's more here.

Sony's CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, continues to be someone who just doesn't get it. Sure, he's made smaller cultural changes at the electronics maker, but it's being eaten alive in the flat-panel television segment by competitors like Samsung and Vizio. Sony did say that flat-panel TV sales were down in China, although it did not comment about other regions that may have seen a dip.

With the economy in the U.S. in a precarious position, it would be interesting to see what flat-panel TV makers were selling more TVs than Sony beyond the above-mentioned brands that seem to have better marketing and lower prices than the Japanese icon. In terms of portable electronics, Sony's grasp on maintaining proprietary storage formats on its digital cameras and others make it a laughing stock in the tech consumer world.

And then Stringer tells the world that the Nintendo Ltd. (OTC: NTDOY) Wii is a "niche gaming device." Is Stringer completely out to lunch? The Sony Playstation 3 is a niche device that just happens to have a Blu-ray disc player in it (which is the unit's saving grace among non-gamers). The Wii continues pummeling the Playstation 3 in monthly sales, which could not be done by a "niche" device. Sony will continue to be marginalized in certain product segments if its head honcho and corporate culture continue seeing the competition in such menial terms.

Sony (SNE) sees operating profit tumble 47% in latest quarter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft's (MSFT) Halo 3 launch to put final nail in Sony's (SNE) gaming coffin?

Brian White — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Competitive Strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s release of the gaming title Halo 3 is what I consider to be the last stand for the software company to make just a single penny of profit on its billion dollar-losing Xbox gaming division. For years now, we're heard from J. Allard and other Microsoft execs that the software sales would make money for the division while the company continued to sell Xbox hardware at a loss just to get it into the hands of customers. Ditto for Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE), which reportedly takes a large hit on each PlayStation 3 sale. So far, Microsoft hasn't made anything from the sale of Xbox machines.

Microsoft even cinched up its position to make the profit in video game sales by purchasing Bungie Studios years ago, makers of the Halo game franchise. The Halo games have been crucial to Microsoft's Xbox success in sales (reportedly over 8 million consoles), because without it, the company would have to seriously be thinking about exiting that piece of the entertainment biz.

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Microsoft's (MSFT) Halo 3 launch to put final nail in Sony's (SNE) gaming coffin? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony loses $563 million in latest quarter

Brian White — Thu, 17 May 2007 11:34:00 EST

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Bad News, Wal-Mart (WMT), Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

The news continues to not look good for Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE).Sony's quarterly loss of $563 million was announced yesterday, and the consumer electronics giant cited PlayStation 3 development costs and under-performing sales as the triggers for such a dismal fourth quarter. Sir Howard Stringer may be pulling his hair out about now, if any is left. Perhaps that's a toupee he's been wearing all these years, eh?

Sony stated that it had shipped 5.5 million PlayStation 3 gaming consoles for its last fiscal year (below the internal goal of 6 million unit shipments), and the company now expects to ship 11 million PlayStation 3 units by March of 2008. Is that enough to get things on track at Sony? Probably not. In addition to lackluster PlayStation 3 sales, the prices for the red-hot category of flat-panel televisions have taken a huge nosedive, something Sony pricing execs are probably stewing over in the shower before each day begins.

But, back to the PlayStation 3, the reported high-development costs and high retail price tag of the gaming system are all pieces of the puzzle that is keeping these units in short supply and not in the hands of gaming consumers, who seem to prefer the much cheaper Nintendo Wii ($250), which is much less advanced technologically than the PlayStation 3 but contains a far more immersive gaming experience for the consumer, according to critics. In other words, it's not the horsepower that counts here but the overall engagement with the consumer. This was lost on Sony apparently, as the PlayStation 3, for all its high-tech goodness, is being left behind by even the year-and-a-half old Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360.

Sony loses $563 million in latest quarter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 17 May 2007 11:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony shipped one million Playstation 3 units in 2006

Brian White — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:46:00 EST

Filed under: Good news, Products and Services, Launches, Industry, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy, Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) has announced that it has shipped one million Playstation 3 consoles in the U.S. from the day it launched in late November 2006 to the last day of the calendar year. Early reports said that Sony -- which was plagued with supply issues that forced it to make fewer initial consoles than it had hoped -- would sell only 800,000 consoles by year's end. So, it shipped over a million -- but how many sold?

Right now, the Playstation 3 is hard to find at stores and online. Nevertheless, Sony's shipments of one million PS3 consoles in the U.S. fulfilled half of its goal to ship two million PS3 consoles worldwide in 2006. Sony did not break out numbers to say how many global units it had sold in 2006 -- it just reported U.S. numbers shipped this time around.

Sony reported that it sold 197,000 PS3s on launch day, less than half of the 400,000 it had initially forecast. With the Microsoft Xbox 360 already on the market for a year and with the Nintendo Wii selling 476,000 consoles in the two weeks following its November 19 launch -- two days after the PS3 launched -- is Sony headed for a huge disappointment? I doubt that, but 2007 will be an interesting time for its CEO, Sir Howard Stringer.

Sony shipped one million Playstation 3 units in 2006 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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