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Sony Set To Sell Less Via Retailers, Jury Still Out On TV Future

By David Richards| 28 May 2015


	After years of losses Sony Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai said last night that the Sony is now entering a growth stage. He said that the Company that has lost over a$14 Billion dollars during the past five years is now back making money and that he anticipates profits to flow from “aggressive investments into promising areas” such as components for digital Cameras. There is also the possibility that Sony could still pull out of manufacturing TV’s. “This year will mark the beginning of our profit expansion phase, Hirai told analysts at an investor briefing in Tokyo. Image sensors such as those used in smartphone cameras, video game network services and virtual reality gear offer growth opportunities, he said. Hirai has shifted Sony’s focus from consumer electronics to entertainment content and games, selling the personal computer business and putting TV and smartphone units on probation. He has not ruled out closing down or selling the loss making TV and home entertainment business. That approach, coupled with Chief Financial Officer Kenichiro Yoshida’s emphasis on operational accountability, has boosted the company’s value by more than $20 billion in the past year. Sony, is now forecasting operating income will climb to $4.1 billion in the year ending March 2018. That’s the highest since 1998, when the company made cathode-ray tube TVs and one of its biggest music sellers was the “Titanic” soundtrack the Wall Street Journal said. In its PlayStation 4 console business, Sony is shifting focus to selling streaming services to its more than 50 million active online users. The company plans to release a virtual-reality headset dubbed Project Morpheus in the first half of 2016. Sony is also quadrupling investment in semiconductors to 290 billion yen this year to tap surging demand for the sensors that power Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. smartphones. The Tokyo-based company expects sales in the business to climb as much as 62 percent in the next three years. “We are several years ahead of our rivals in this area,” Hirai said. “The spending will help secure our lead.”

About Post Author

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.