“The Sony Corporation posted a steep rise in net profit on Thursday, helped by favorable tax effects, but the figure masked declines in sales and operating profit as the aging PlayStation game console faltered and troubles continued in the electronics business,” Todd Zaun reports for The New York Times. “Sony’s net profit rose 55 percent, to 143.8 billion yen ($1.39 billion), or 138.08 yen a share, for the three months ended Dec. 31, its third fiscal quarter, compared with 92.6 billion yen, or 92.51 yen a share, in the year-earlier period. The increase, however, was solely because of tax credits accrued in its United States operation that added 68 billion yen to the quarter’s bottom line.”
“Sony’s revenue in the quarter fell 7.5 percent, to 2.15 trillion yen, from 2.32 trillion yen a year earlier, while operating profit sank 13 percent, to 138.2 billion yen, from 158.8 billion last year. For the quarter just ended, operating profit in Sony’s electronics division sank 23 percent, to 49.4 billion yen ($480 million), as sales of its portable music players fell in the face of competition from the iPod from Apple,” Zaun reports.
“Ken Kutaragi, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment and a favorite to succeed [current CEO] Mr. Idei, acknowledged in a speech last week that Sony had been late to the market for portable MP3 players, mainly because of worries at its movie and music units about copyright protection. ‘Even three years ago, because we had music, Sony was reluctant about introducing an iPod-type of new product,’ Mr. Kutaragi said. ‘The situation in the last several years is a bit frustrating for everyone.’ Analysts say Sony needs to break down such barriers to developing innovative gadgets. Sony’s last big breakthrough product was the PlayStation game machine, introduced in 1994,” Zaun reports.
Full article here.
Apple bests the giant Sony.
HAH!
And talk about Apple having the power position in any future negotiations about working together. Wow. But hey, it’s not as though Jobs didn’t reach out to them in the first place.
Sony used to be an innovator — now they’re on the verge of becoming an also-ran.
Magic word: “waiting”, as in “I don’t think Apple’s waiting for Sony to come crawling back on its knees begging to make a deal . . . because I don’t think Apple cares!”
“As sales of its portable music players fell in the face of competition from the iPod?” Wouldn’t they have had to sell some in order for the sales to fall?
Sony music player sales FELL?
They probably mean that Sony market share fell, not sales!
Sony player sales probably went up, just not by much compared to iPods!
If sales actually DECLINED at a time when people are getting interested in this stuff, and when Sony’s been marketing a new walkman line, that’s a bad, bad sign.
A good read on Apple and the “Revolution waiting to happen” is yesterday’ Cringely’s story: “Dethroning King Gillette. Is iPod the Razor or the Blade?”
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050127.html
fun times, yessssse sir
‘The situation in the last several years is a bit frustrating for everyone.’
I doubt Steve is frustrated much.
Net profit of 1.39 billion US dollars!? I thought Sony had been sucking wind in the profitability department lately.
If they really want a new breakout product, they should partner with Apple because we all know, Apple’s R&D is best of breed.
Sony’s cash and distribution with Apple’s R&D…I’d buy one even if it was just a high-tech toaster. I’d be the best toaster around.
“Sony’s last big breakthrough product was the PlayStation game machine, introduced in 1994”
Um, they purchased the PlayStation lock, stock, and barrel from Nintendo, who’d developed it, but found there was no market in Japan for a CD-based gaming system.
Some invention!
OK people. Lets cut those:
‘Magic Word is abc. As in xyz etc.’ ending to the post.
It was amusing for a moment. Now its just painful.
Oh and about Sony? No business stays at the top of the tree forever. Not Sony, not Microsoft, not IBM, not Dell, not App…. well there might be one exception!!
Magi….uuuuaaarghhhhhh!
my magic word is able, what is yours?
“pattern”
Sony bought the Playstation technology from Nintendo? It was my understanding that they developed a cd add-on in a partnership with Nintendo but ultimately Nintendo axed the idea. Partly due to their wanting to stick with the cartridge based system of doing things. Sony then went it alone and developed it into their own system which became the playstation. At the time, Sony entered in a very competitive marketplace with leaders already in place. Very much like the enviroment that Microsoft came into it with the X-Box. The fact that Sony was able to overnight become the leader is impressive. I’d not discount their ability at that time, or their involvement in developing the hardware. Despite a lot of their mistakes, you have to respect Sony for their many contributions in pushing the state of the art forward.
Excuse me while I babble, but…
I just read an article on the PSP, and it looks like a great system, but will not really cut into the iPod as the default music player, due to its size and capacity. All these devices have to make a balancing act between Battery life, memory size/type, screen size/type, and content DRM. Each device is good for their purpose but may suck for the other. i finally got a PDA and was thinking about how it would be nice to have an iPod with the same functions, then I realized that accessing a hard drive with constantly changing info would KILL my battery life, which would make it a sucky device.
I would like to see what Apple would do if Sony made a deal with them for design the next PSP, but with a game and movie download store attached, as well as iTMS integration. For people who just want Music & maybe Photos, get an iPod and use the iTMS, for those who want Video and/or Games, get the new Apple/Sony iPSP and use the iMVS (iMovie Video Store) and the PSPGS (iPlaystation Portable Gaming Store)
In Jobs keynote he said Apple might work with Sony in COMPUTERS and MUSIC. WOW! The next PLAYSTATION WILL BE ITUNES & IPOD COMPATIBLE. Remember you heard it here first!!!!!!!
Agree fully with Macaday.
Fuck off already with “My magic word is profit…as in Apple is going to make a profit”.
Are you losers? Do you need to validate Apple every chance you get?
Why not take after my short fat ass body and go out and nail some hot chick or two.
Magic word ‘few’, as in I have slept with a few women in my life.
See how retarted it is?
Losers.
Right On Ron!
That goes for foul language and sexual references too!!
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“Sony had been late to the market for portable MP3 players”
Sony wasn’t late coming out with a portable mp3 player, I bought one a year before the iPod came out. It just sucked really really bad!!!
Ron Jeremy, yea, I agree with the Magic Word stuff. I stopped doing it a while ago. Oh my God! My magic word is . . . just kidding.
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yeah the iPod vs PSP stuff is just ignorant… Apples selling 1M+ iPods a month.. the PSP comes out in March with a clunky interface.. and .. oh yeah.. it won’t fit in your pocket…
For a portable device, you’re gonna wanna keep this thing in your backpack.. you’re not gonna be whipping it out like it’s a cell phone, or an ipod mini…
PSP will sell well.. but comparing it the the iPod is just silly.. remember.. now that the shuffle is out, Apple is taking a large bite out of the flash market, which was about 30% of the whole market
Ron,
“The Power of Coincidence”
by David G. Myers
http://www.davidmyers.org/coincidence/
Magic word “answer” hehehehehehhehe
Remember the Sony MiniDisc? What a joke!
MDN MAGIC WORD: “BELOW”
…as in “Ron Jeremy, you BELOW donkey dick.“
Thank you for giving me some incentive to keep up the magic word bit. In fact, I’ll do it every time from now on. Heck, maybe I’ll post ONLY the magic word.
MDN magic word: nothing
cool.
Don’t forget the Sony man with his camera at the keynote.
A man in his position doesn’t fly to a keynote just to promote a camera.
There is much more to that than meets the eye.
They might have failed to conclude a deal with Apple about the iPod, but there’s plenty of scope for another joint venture.
A SHORT STORY…
A mate of mine was interested in a music player for when he works out.
I showed him the various ipods, emailed links to him with glowing reviews of the mini and shuffle and showed him my 40gb ipod.
He looked at all this – I explained that he probably only needed a shuffle as you can get 150 song on it etc.
Anyway, after all this he went out to the store and bought a SONY!
He showed it to me; it takes one AA battery, has 1gb storage and cost £150!!
What a loser!!
The battery has 17 hours life in it before he has to replace it – it’s gonna cost him a fortune in AA batteries!
I explained to him that for an extra £20 he could have bought an ipod mini, had 4gb for songs and has a rechargable battery built-in and total seamless compatibiliy with the itunes software.
CONCLUSION…
Just goes to show – you can give these people all the info, excellent reviews (even from PC Magazine!), recommendations and even let them use your ipod and they will still make crap buying decisions!!
Give him a couple of weeks and I guarantee that he will be taking it back to the store an changing it for an ipod mini!!
A least SONY sold ONE music player this quarter – shame it was to one of my mates!!!
Magic word: ‘trade’: as in he should trade in that SONY for an ipod!
I didn’t like my magic word: “usually”
“Unusual” would have been cooller.
Oh, and er, I’m sure Sony will bounce back with something interesting. Everyone may be frustrated, but I’m glad to see its only because people will not accept mediocrity anymore.
Go Apple! Revenge shall be yours!