Sony TV Sales Bad, Smartphone Sales A Disaster But Superman Comes To The Rescue

Sony TV sales are struggling and their mobile phone business is down 54%, but their Playstation business with a little help from Superman and their imaging business are delivering record results.

As ChannelNews tipped earlier this year Sony is still struggling to grow their TV business with sales falling 25% in the last quarter compared with Q2 2017. The biggest problem for the Japanese Company is their mobile phone business with insiders tipping that Sony could get out of the global smartphone early next year if their new 5G models do not deliver increased sales.
Sony TV sales are struggling, and their mobile phone business is down 54%, but their Playstation business with a little help from Superman and their imaging business are delivering record results.

This division is set to post an operating loss of more than A$1.1 Billion in the current fiscal year, they are also working on a new gaming smartphone.

In Australia several retailers and carriers have stopped selling Sony mobile phones.

The biggest success for Sony is coming from their videogame business which is delivering record profits.

Sales are up 116% over Q2 2017 with Sony saying tha they expect operating profits to rise 18% to US$7.7 billion in the year ending March 2019, significantly exceeding analysts’ forecasts and the company’s own earlier expectations.

The hero is the PlayStation 4, which was launched nearly five years ago.

“Marvel’s Spider-Man,” which Sony released in September, has become one of the company’s most successful game titles.

Research firm NPD Group said last week the game was September’s most popular title in the U.S. and had the seventh-highest sales for the first month among games released for PlayStation.

Sony also cashed in on the popularity of Epic Games “Fortnite.” Although the game is available on other gaming platforms including the Nintendo Switch which is struggling and Microsoft’s Xbox One, Sony is among the biggest beneficiaries because it has a large base of PlayStation owners who are downloading the game. The PlayStation 4 had sold 86 million units as of September.

Elsewhere, a smartphone game called “Fate/Grand Order” that is operated by Sony’s music unit also exceeded expectations. The game has been gaining traction in the U.S. recently.

In the Home Entertainment market Sony is focusing on higher-end hardware such as noise-cancelling headphones expanding its games business and projectors a move that will benefit Melbourne based Audio Active who distribute the top end Sony projectors and high-end sound gear.

For the year ending March 2019, Sony said it expected net profit would rise 44% to ¥705 billion, helped by a one-time gain of ¥110 billion stemming from its recent purchase of EMI Music Publishing.

About Post Author

David Richards

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.