While Sony Australia struggle to recover from a $200M fall in revenue, the Sony Corporation whose shares rose this week on speculation that Apple was interested in the company, is tipped to announce better than expected results later today in Japan.
Contributing to the company’s performance in the last quarter is improved sales of their PlayStation 3 gaming console that is now being bundled with their highly popular Move kit which is a wireless motion-sensing game controller. In the US the company has already shipped more than one million units.
Also contributing to the bottom line is an improvement in their Sony Ericcson operation. The joint venture between LM Ericsson and Sony reported a third consecutive net profit in the third quarter, due to new Smartphones and cost cutting.
According to analysts Sony expects to climb back into the black in the year through March 2011. It projects a net profit of 60 billion yen and revenue of 7.6 trillion yen. Last year, it posted a loss of 26.3 billion yen ($292 million) in the first half.
Credit Suisse analyst Shunsuke Tsuchiya claims that Sony’s strategy of connecting its hardware and content faces intensifying competition from rivals such as Apple.
Tsuchiya says Sony needs to improve its video services and that the new Apple TV, which streams content from the Internet, “constitutes a direct threat to Sony.”
In the USA Sony is preparing a marketing blitz to promote its new Google TV offering despite a decision by most US TV networks to block access to content via Sony’s Google TV offering.
The ABC claims that the Sony TV’s which feature Google’s Web-surfing system, are $200 to $400 higher than comparable TVs. The differential may dampen sales as families continue to pinch pennies amid ongoing jitters about the economy.
It’s also unclear whether a recent price cut of its PlayStation Portable Go will be enough to bolster sales. The handheld device has suffered from disappointing sales since its launch last year.
Sony shares fell 28 percent in the April-September period, compared with a 15.5 percent decline by the Nikkei 225 stock average.
