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Sony releases Q1 2012 financial results, eats $312 million loss
Sony's first-quarter figures for 2012 show that despite the company's optimism three months ago, it's made a net loss of $312 million. It pulled in a whopping $19.2 billion in sales for the three months ending June 30th, partly credited to bringing Sony Mobile fully into the family. However, the cost of restructuring the Mobile Products and Communications Division (of which Sony Mobile is a part) came to $143 million, wiping out the additional gains to record a loss of $356 million. Gaming-wise, the PlayStation maker suffered a $45 million loss as falling sales of the PSP and PS3 were only partially offset by the sales of the PS Vita. There was better news in its imaging division, while sales of compact cameras fell, DSLRs and "Professional" products took up the slack, resulting in a profit of $160 million. In a trend we've seen across the Home Entertainment industry, sales of LCD televisions continued to fall, forcing the company to eat a loss of $126 million. Movie and TV recorded a loss of $62 million, although that's primarily due to a dip in advertising sales in India and the cost of marketing (but not producing) The Amazing Spider-Man, the profits of which won't be recognized until September. Finally, while it spent big to purchase EMI this quarter, big-ticket albums like Usher's Looking 4 Myself and One Direction's Up All Night helped the division make a profit of $92 million. While Sony's treading water to execute Kaz Hirai's "One" Strategy, it's still got $8.4 billion stashed under the mattress, and in the face of lower sales, is hoping that reduced costs will help it make $1.6 billion in profit by the end of March 2013.
Samsung spinning off LCD business
When the Korea Exchange asked Sammy about rumors of an impending spin-off of its LCD business, the firm said it was a move it was considering. Well, consider it done -- today Samsung announced it would be launching Samsung Display on April 1st, 2012 with $6.6 billion in its coffers. The move is still waiting for shareholder approval, but Donggun Park, executive vice president of Samsung's LCD business, seems optimistic. "The spin-off will allow us to make quicker business decisions and respond to our clients' needs more swiftly." This decision comes just months after Sammy agreed to take Sony's stake in S-LCD, turning the former display partnership into a fully owned subsidiary. Hit the break for the official (machine translated) press release.
Sharp releases slew of new Quattron TVs at IFA 2010
Just in case those George Takei commercials didn't clue you in that Sharp was serious about Quattron, the company has announced four new TV lines at IFA sporting yellow as a fourth subpixel color. At the top of the list, the Quattron 3D-enabled LE925 line will be available in 60-inch or 46-inch sizes and feature Sharp's proprietary high-speed FRED LCD signal processing technology along with side-mounted scanning LED backlighting -- which like the LV Series -- is touted to produce 1.8x better brightness than competing sets and reduce 3D crosstalk. Aquos Net+ connectivity is thrown in too, along with 2D-to-3D conversion, a digital triple tuner and 8GB of built-in flash memory for timeshift recording. Playing second fiddle to this overachiever are the 2D-only LE924E, LE824E and LE814E series, which will also feature Aquos Net+. Pricing details for all of the new lines are still unknown, but they're slated to be available in Germany and Austria later this month. Here's hoping Sulu gets his jaw checked out before then.
Disney unloads a barrage of tween-centric consumer electronics
Worried your kids haven't been completely indoctrinated with the Disney universe and its philosophy of watch, buy, and buy? Well fear not, parents, because the cartoon-kingpin has got your back (and your pocketbook). If your tweens have been looking for something to do, and playing stickball just ain't cuttin' the mustard, maybe they need the $99.99 Disney Flix Video Camera (pictured), a tween-targeted digital video camera that comes bundled with Disney Director software, which lets the little rapscallions star in their own Disney movies. The company is also offering LCD TVs, such as the $299.99, 15-inch High School Musical model, which resembles a locker and sports 1024 x 768 resolution (the displays also come in Disney Princess, Hannah Montana, and Pirates of the Caribbean motifs). Additionally, the cartoon-factory is offering docks for use with your iPod, selling for $69.99, which feature alarm clocks and AM/FM tuners, though the Hannah Montana version does double duty as a guitar amp -- presumably to use with your Disney guitar. All the products will be available sometime this Fall, but good luck getting your kids to wait patiently.[Via StockHouse]
Dell calls it quits in the LCD TV game?
According to unconfirmed reports stemming from Taiwan (where else?), Michael Dell is pulling his company out of the LCD TV biz to return focus to its core PC efforts. Unlike Apple's ridiculous desktop display markup, Dell has concentrated on providing low-cost computer and home theater offerings, something particularly dangerous in the cutthroat LCD TV market, so it's not a total surprise to see 'em bail now. Dell is purportedly set to stop manufacture this month, so we should know soon enough how legitimate these reports are, a Dell spokeswoman wouldn't comment on the rumors, only stating that Dell currently sells LCD TVs in a limited number of markets.
