“Sony Corp warned of a fourth straight year of losses, with its television unit alone set to lose $2.2 billion on tumbling demand and a surging yen, sinking its U.S. shares and raising concerns about the viability of its high-profile TV business,” Isabel Reynolds reports for Reuters.
“The maker of Bravia TVs, Vaio computers and PlayStation game consoles cut its sales forecast for TVs, cameras and DVD players on Wednesday and said it may report a 90 billion yen ($1.1 billion) net loss for the current financial year, scrapping its earlier net profit estimate of 60 billion yen,” Reynolds reports. “Sony U.S.-listed shares were down 6.8 percent at $18.36 in afternoon trading.”
Reynolds reports, “‘When you have competitors like LG (Corp ) and Samsung so aggressively attacking the (TV) market, it really does hurt margins,’ said Michael Yoshikami, chief executive of YCMNET Advisors, adding that Sony needs to compete on price. ‘If they can’t, they need to get out of the (TV) business… I don’t think they are really a brand at this point that can really command a premium price,” he added.
MacDailyNews Take: Ouch.
“The warning by Sony marks the erosion of its standing in the technology world. Back when Sony, led by co-founder Akio Morita, launched the Walkman, it proved an inspiration to the founders of a then-little-known start-up company: Apple Computers [sic],” Reynolds reports. “Now Sony is struggling to come up with hit devices and finds itself outmaneuvered in TVs by Samsung and in the booming smartphone market by Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Apple decides to enter the TV market, Sony’s going be hating life even more than they are today.