Sony Australia is set to report a fall in sales and profits, as Sony sales globally continue to fall. Last night in Japan Sony confirmed that sales of their consumer products which include Bravia LED TV’s and Handycam video cameras and Cybershot digital cameras, had fallen 19.9% during the past year.
Sony Australia is set to report a fall in sales and profits, as Sony sales globally continue to fall. Last night in Japan Sony confirmed that sales of their consumer products which include Bravia LED TV’s and Handycam video cameras and Cybershot digital cameras, had fallen 19.9% during the past year.
In their Playstation division sales fell 10.2% as losses for this division fell to $893 million. Sony Ericsson reported a 37.2% drop in sales of their mobile phones with the company admitting that they are struggling to compete in the mobile phone market.
Overall the net loss for the Japanese Company was $439 Million which is a big improvement on previous years.
Sources in Japan have confirmed that Sony Australia sales have fallen during the past year and that globally the Company has resorted to discounting in an effort to improve sales.
This is the second straight year of losses as sales overall fell 6.7 percent however the Company is expecting a return to profitability this year, due to massive layoffs of staff and the closing of several factories around the world.
Sony admits that fierce competition pushed down prices and that in an effort to be competitive up against brands like Samsung who recently reported a $3.9 Billion dollar profit and LG and Panasonic they had had resort to discounting in an effort to remain competitive.
Sony’s networked products and services unit registered a 10.2 percent drop in sales, primarily due to lower revenues from PlayStation Portable (PSP) handhelds and Vaio PCs.
The PSP has been struggling and unit sales last year were 9.9 million, slightly below the company’s target and well below the 14.1 million units sold in the prior year. Unit sales of PlayStation 3 consoles increased to 13 million, up from 10.1 million in the year earlier.
Revenue at Sony’s Pictures unit was helped by “2012,” “Angels and Demons,” and “Michael Jackson’s This Is It,” while sales of Michael Jackson CDs and music helped Sony’s music arm.
In the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, also ended March 31, Sony reported sales of $18.4 billion.
The net loss in the first quarter was $608 million.
What is concerning analysts is that Sony has shed jobs, shut factories and cut procurement costs to better compete with the likes of Samsung in TVs and Apple Inc in portable music, and notebooks yet they have failed to deliver any break through new products such as Apple has done with the the iPad.
The world’s No.2 LCD TV maker behind Samsung has vowed to turn its television and game operations profitable this year by slashing production costs and boosting unit sales, and helped by the launch of 3D TVs and 3D-ready games in June.
“Sony’s profit forecasts are a good indication of its drive toward a growth path after a series of restructuring moves,” said Ryosuke Katsura, an analyst at Mizuho Securities.
“But there is a risk the company will face a build-up of inventories as competition heats up toward the year-end and if the economy slows down later this year.”
