Sony adjusts expectations due to continued low smartphone sales
Sony has lowered its sales forecast for Xperia smartphones for its fiscal year by two million to 17 million units. Sony’s sales of the smartphones have almost halved, as in the previous two quarters. The business unit is making a profit.
Sony sold 3.5 million Xperia smartphones in the quarter, down 47 percent from last year. It is the third quarter in a row that sales have almost halved compared to the previous year. Sony’s strategy is to sell more high-end models. In the past quarter, sales of midrange smartphones in particular decreased and sales in loss-making regions decreased, Sony claims in announcing the quarterly figures. At the same time, the company has lowered its sales forecast for the current fiscal year from 19 million to 17 million.
Sony Mobile Communications’ quarterly revenue was 169 billion yen, or 1.47 billion euros, which is 39.6 percent lower than last year. The business unit cut costs significantly in the past quarter, turning a loss of 20.6 billion yen, or 179 million euros, into a profit of 3.7 billion yen, or 32 million euros. That is considerably more than the profit of 3.5 million euros from the previous quarter.
Sony sold 3.9 million PS4s in the quarter, slightly less than the 4 million from a year ago. Turnover fell by 11.3 percent to 319.9 billion yen, or 2.78 billion euros. That was due to the impact of exchange rate changes and console price reductions. The game division’s profit also fell to 19 billion yen, or 165 million euros. A positive impact on the results was the reduction in the hardware costs of the PS4. The sales figures of the PlayStation VR are not yet included in the quarterly results.
Delivery of cameras from Sony’s Imaging division remained stable at 0.8 million. This division has been dealing with a shrinking market and the effects of earthquakes in Japan for several quarters. Sony’s total quarterly turnover decreased slightly, from 16.5 billion euros to 14.7 billion euros. The profit amounted to EUR 397 million.