Sony just posted its yearly results today, and while a ¥40.8 billion ($439 million) loss is never a good thing, it's at least a marked improvement from
last year's staggering $1 billion drop into the red, which was the company's first loss in 14 years. LCD TVs and cameras were Sony's big electronics sellers, while PS3 sales went up to 13 million from 10.1 million last year -- and hey, Sony's console actually became profitable at the end of the year as production costs have gone down. Now for the bad news: PSP sales were down to 9.9m from 14.4 last year, with game sales dropping to 44.4m from 50.3m units, while PS2 hardware went down to 7.2m from 7.7m units and PS2 software fell sharply from 83.5m units to 35.7m units. That's not completely unexpected, as the PS2 can't last forever and the PSP is getting long in the tooth, but it means that Sony faces some serious pressure to hit its target of 15m PS3s sold this year to pick up the slack and help it hit its goal of posting a ¥50 billion ($541 million) profit next year. Let's hope that Move controller lives up to the hype, right? Sony's also counting on 3D to help it get there, and wonder of wonders, it also expects Sony Ericsson to hit profitability, so that
X10 mini pro had better be a big improvement over the
Xperia X10. We'll see if Sir Howard can keep all these various ships going in the right direction while still keeping the rest of Sony's diverse operations (like its profitable life insurance business) in line -- it should be an interesting year.
posted May 13th 2010 5:27PM
@amardeus
Sony Bravia KDL46W5500
Sony RHT G900
Sony MHC GN1100D
Sony Playstation 3 80GB
Sony Vaio Laptop
Completely happy with those choices!
@amardeus
I have purchased one Sony (ish) product in the past few years, my Sony Ericsson K610im. That was a terrible error, constantly breaking, junk etc.
Maybe it was Ericsson's fault?
@amardeus
It's not just you- before Sony even had a games division I was a Sony devotee (the word fanboy was not in common usage in the '80s) and I noticed a marked change in the quality of their consumer electronics when they moved their manufacturing bases out of Japan and into the rest of asia. It was then when I switched the Sony ES line, and even then I had a couple of unreliable (and expensive!) lemons sneak through, costly choices that really tainted my opinion of Sony quality. I am sad to say that even though I've bought every iteration of the PlayStation, for the most part I stay away from their consumer electronics. Seems like I'm not alone.
I am not surprised. In my cirlce of friends, family, and acquaintances, the 4 letters SONY on any product stopped being synonymous with quality YEARS ago. The only Sony product I would ever purchase now is the PS3 - because of the gamin system aspect and not the BR player aspect. Not televisions, or stereos, or PMPs...
SONY needs to turn thinigs around by not only getting the quality they were once known for back, but by getting something new, innovative, and makes people WANT it.
@whySoSerious
I'm sorry, you're confusing quality with cost. There's no way you can claim a Bravia LCD is worse than a Samsung. Pricier yes, lower quality hell no.
@Almo
No, I'm not confusing the two, because I never brought up cost. In my experience, and many that have shared their stories, many SONY products going back some years ago began suffering from quality issues. Not necessarily performance, but any semblance of longevity and durability. They would either physically wear or break prematurely, or functionally suffer.
I don't know if that's changed, but I fear that these experiences were not isolated and went on for a long enough period that people began shying away from SONY products. The person who commented just above me, amardeus, sounds like he/she went through the same.
@whySoSerious
Brand Reliability from Consumer Reports, as you can See SONY is at the TOP of that list (FLAT PANEL TVs)
LCD
JVC 2
Sony 2
Sylvania 2
Panasonic 2
Sanyo 3
Sharp 3
Vizio 3
Samsung 3
Toshiba 4
LG 4
Philips 4
Magnavox 5
Hitachi 5
Westinghouse 8
Mitsubishi 11
PLASMA
Sanyo 2
Panasonic 2
Pioneer 3
Hitachi 3
Samsung 3
LG 5
@jkudlacz
And just to clarify if you check their products quality rating for DVD/Blu-Ray players or Digital Cameras they are also at the TOP of those lists.
SONY always made high quality products that are reliable. Sure they charge more then other companies but that is because their products last longer and if you don't believe me check out CONSUMER REPORTS reliability statistics.
@jkudlacz
100% agree. Thanks for backing up my belief. :)
@whySoSerious
Unfortunately, I have to agree. I used to be a Sony fanboi (I'm Japanese, after all) but a string of bad Sony purchases (lower end consumer-level headphones, etc.) have served to ruin that formerly good name to the point where I no longer seriously consider Sony as a decent electronics manufacturer. Supposedly those in the audio/video business say that some of the professional-level high-end Sony products are still quite good, but it seems like poor business practice to slap their good name on any old product, whether good or bad. For a while after Sony purchased Aiwa (another formerly great Japanese audio manufacturer) they proceeded to put the Aiwa name on their lower-end products, but I don't think it helped except to ruin the Aiwa name as well rather than improving the Sony image.
I too have been unimpressed with the Sony Ericsson partnership (my sister's SE phone is chintzy and the fake metallic paint has been scraped off to reveal an ugly off-white plastic underneath) and I even returned an SE phone that I tried out and opted for a Siemens.
I'm actually writing this post from my sister's old Sony VAIO however. The LCD on it is surprisingly good (and the only part our dad didn't replace: the insides were swapped with another VAIO with a broken screen) and the P3 inside still runs XP, albeit a little slowly. All in all, however, until Sony starts bringing their 'A' game to their products to match their Apple-like premium pricing, it's doubtful I'll bother to look at Sony much unless I have money to burn.
/of course, the VAIO Z is pretty sexy and the P is kind of cute...
//what was wrong with the Xperia X10? It sounds good on paper...
wasn't the whole blu-ray win supposed to net them tons of cashola? what's going on with that?
I have an XBOX 360 and the PS3 is totally worth it! I will be getting one soon. Sony is a good company and they make some really high quality goods. God of War for the PS3 is top 5 games I have ever played!!!!
@Mike Vick
i have an xbox 360 and a ps3. the ps3 is NOT worth it. it has no games
@account5
i wonder if engadget installed this automatic banhammer that just blasts every post you make to oblivion?
oh yeah, sue for me for saying the word "banhammer" on a PS3 article
@Mike Vick
I have gone through 3 Xbox 360s myself, the first 2 had Red ring of Death and the 3rd one stopped reading any disks. Microsoft offered to fix it for the same price as buying a new system. So I picked up a PS3 and am extremely happy, and very satisfied with the selection of Top Quality Games over a large quantity of sub par games (such as many of the titles offered for 360 and Wii).
I would have expected much bigger drops, especially on the psp front
Well, at least it's showing a progress.
the decline of the PSP doesn't surprise me. I got the 1st gen years ago and its just collecting dust now. It was a lot of fun but with the lack of games, I just lost interest and it seems so did about 4Mil potential owners.
Sony is still a great company, just crossing my fingers for the X10....
Doing immoral things like removing features they have sold from their products will probably not help.
I will never buy another Sony product in my life.
(Unless they retract, but even then, they have already demonstrated too much.)
@pmos69
you're never buying another sony product because they removed linux from higher firmware ps3s?
@nicholasphan
Would you buy another Ford car if they came to your house and removed the radio?
Surely you didn't buy that car because of the radio...
@pmos69 dont hope your are a apple fanboy than :P that would be causing some moral issues for you with their new license changes :D
@pmos69 Next time you watch a movie or listen to music make sure they don't belong to Sony Studios!
@pmos69
If FORD came to my house and removed my Radio just because THEY thought it was a good idea, I'd be pissed, and I surly would never buy a FORD again. My current radio is STOCK. It was bad enough going from Hardware PS2 compatibility, to Software PS2 Compatibility, to just forget all about it, to tossing out Linux all together also. I haven't even gotten into removing ports also. You don't see MS removing features from the 360. MS is always expanding. From ADDING a HDMI port, to installing more Memory for storage on the Arcade. Besides all the software updates adding features. MS has been moving forward, while SONY it seems has been working backwards. Seems strange to me. I always thought you want to IMPROVE your system. Like anything else, you want it better, not worse.
@nezzdk
Nope, not anybody's fanboy.
I do own several Apple products, just like several Sony products.
@JBDragon hey im sorry but didn't the ps3 already have everything that u just said ms is just adding to ur xbox.... they took away something that very few ppl used and they had their reasons... (hackers)
@smallj
Would you buy another Ford car if they came to your house and removed the radio?
(Even if you rarely used it.)
I usually avoid Sony stuff, cause I know they usually have a price markup from the branding. Like all the Bravia stuff is way overpriced.
@Raffi256
There is a reason for it do you know why the xbox is so cheap? Because it's a crappy piece of hardware that breaks down all the time.
While the initial cost of ps3 might be higher if you consider online gaming peripherals etc the total cost of ownership of ps3 is much much lower especially when you're getting your xbox fixed more than you play it
Microsoft makes bad software and even worse hardware. Would you buy a tv with a 50% failure rate even though the manufactere would get it fixed?
@Proud Japanese
Not talking about video games, PS3 isn't overpriced anymore anyway.
@Proud Japanese Yes, MS makes crappy hardware. But the problem is that Sony makes even worse software with policies that're stuck in the 90s. As much as I love their brilliant past, they really need to check their hubris and look into internal problems. Btw, I own PS3.
Maybe the overpriced netbooks are finally going to go lower.
Perhaps next time they can make an item that actually makes money instead of losing money over 4 years.
Hey....please look at the bright side! They made money from PS3 finally. I am so glad I have one. Proud of you...Sony! Don't listen to the stupid investors.
I really wish Sony will just wake the F UP and get their head out of the sand. They are losing battles on all front. :(
I think the new LED TV lineup from sony shows promise, and PS3 is going to kick ass to xbox this year with its higher quality of graphics and bluray player.
think the xbox is showing age compared to PS3 and PC games on a highres screen im starting to see all the graphic scaling its using in games but it might just be me, and I still love my PC gaming rig the most :)
Hmm sony Ericsson is already turning a profit if you pool at their latest reporter. And by the Way tahe x10 is selling well in markets where it has been released.
I think Sony should just sell or spin-off some of their divisions. As is stands they have their fingers in too many pots. With so little focus, everything suffers. That's why they're struggling so much. The deal with Ericcson really isn't working out for them. Vaios while packing a lot in a tight package are not as cutting edge as their price would suggest. Yes, those are getting cheaper now and the cheaper models don't compare to similiarly priced/specced competition.
Maybe they held on to the ps2 like they are going to hold on to the psp for a little to long
Prepare for the fall o Sony phones
Sony Ericsson DID hit profitability in Q1 2010, Nilay.
Well cause the playstation is s sick media playing blu-ray player with streaming capabilities, a good web browser. Hell ITS GOT BLU-RAY!
I think they make games for it. :b
Holy sh*t, theres way too many ppl arguing here over something that is entirely insignificant. THERE IS NO CONSOLE WARS U IDIOTS! SONY AND MICROSOFT ARE BOTH DOING FINE! My 2 cents...get over this article and play whatever system u like because in the grand scheme of things nobody gives a fu*k except for u sad few. Microsoft and Sony are gonna keep making/selling games and your senseless flaming of each other wont change a thing now matter how hard u hug you console and shout to each other how its the best "forever".
I'm not surprised.
Sony is the definition of a company that's simply too big and too diverse to manage. They simply have no business being a tech company AND a movie studio/media company AND a life insurance comany (WTF???).
The best thing for them is if they break up or spin all the disperate divisions and finally get out of that sinking Sony Ericcson parternship. That phone merger is a sinking ship and it's not turning around.
Maybe Sony should reconsider Aibo. Whoever came up with that stupid Rolly could be the same guy whose responsible for their massive financial decline :)
I see the Sony Fan boys are out in full force. You sound like us Nintendo Fanboys circa Gamecube....
With regard to the PS3, still waiting on Sony to...
1. Allow uploads onto the PS3 over the network
2. Allow the PS3 to index media content on external drives nicely
3. Allow some customisation of the XMB. HTML based 'XMBapps. would be wonderful.
Also waiting for them to release a Vaio branded ipad competitor with Playstation gaming smarts.
Dear Sony;
Your profit lost has everything to do with your pricing. The world's economy is bad and your pricing still reflects that of a world that is not in depression. If you want to gain ground in about 2 quarters you must make your prices competitive with LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sharp. You already have an advantage " a brand name" that people trust and recognize as excellence. But having a great brand name is not everything. Make people look at you and choose you over the rest. People are thinking with their wallets first. My advice look at where you are loosing ground and make a price cut to push your product. The recession will not last forever sell cheaper now and regain a bigger share of the market. Do not be short sighted.