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PlayStation 3 still a loss leader, 'six cents for every dollar' of hardware sold
Though Sony's overall bottom line is back in black, what held it back from an even bigger celebration cake was its core electronics brand, and no stranger to that sector is the PlayStation group. Both Joystiq and The Wall Street Journal took a more careful look at the numbers, and there's a few points worth noting. PS2 sales took a year-over-year dip, down from 2.5 million to 2.1 million. PSP took a larger hit, down to 4.2 million from 5.1 million. The PS3, however, is a mix of good and bad news. The good news: 6.5 million in unit sales, up from the 4.5 million prior. That said, it turns out Sony has yet to pull its home console away from "loss leader" status -- WSJ reports the company is still losing "about six cents for every dollar of PS3 hardware sales," i.e. if Sony were to sell the consoles to retailers for $300, it'd technically be taking a hit of $18 each time. That's nowhere near the estimates when the PS3 first launch, and additionally Sony's CFO Nobuyuki Oneda is promising a 15 percent reduction cost by March 2011, which should go a long way. Lets' not forget the company still makes money on Blu-rays and software sales, but in the meantime, hang tight little buddy, you're this close to being profitable all by your lonesome. Update: An error in fiscal sales figures that has been subsequently remedied.
Sony catches tablet fever, wants to be an 'active player'
Sony has long said it would cautiously approach the tablet market while it built up its Reader e-book line, but it looks like things are picking up a little steam: CFO Nobuyuki Oneda said the company is "very interested" in the tablet market during his post-earnings report news conference. Oneda said that Sony's "confident we have the skills to create a product," and that "Time-wise we are a little behind the iPad but it's a space we would like to be an active player in." We could certainly see a Sony device about the size of the Reader Daily Edition making a splash, especially if it's tied in with Sony's new push at a unified online experience -- and dare we hope for tablet remix of the Dash Internet Viewer (pictured above) based on the Chumby OS? Time will tell.
Sony to compete against Nintendo with PSP's multimedia features
After reporting some pretty disappointing losses, Sony is desperately trying to restructure its games division to at least break even. After stating boldly that they will not give up on the PSP, Sony will now seriously push the multimedia capabilities of the system. They've already started developing partnerships with media providers, such as amazon, but it looks like Sony is looking for even larger partnerships.According to MarketWatch, analysts are predicting Sony will partner up with "at least one big ISP, such as Yahoo." Such tie-ins will promote the PSP's ability to download movies, television shows and PlayStation games. The PSP is technically capable of doing a lot, but the goal is to get the word out to the mainstream."It was pretty much a competition issue with the Nintendo so we have to fight back by introducing more attractive applications [for the PSP] by using the network," Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony's CFO, told the Financial Times.[Thanks, nav! Via paidContent]
PSP shipments down 75%; Sony refuses to give up
Momentum is clearly not on Sony's side. Newly released figures today revealed that the PSP shipped 1.76 million units the holiday period from October to December. While that's certainly not a small amount, it's dwarfed by the incredible performance of the PSP the year before, where the system shipped 6.22 million units.In spite of significantly weakening hardware performance, gamers are still buying games for the system, much to Sony's relief. Software sales were up 24% for this quarter compared to last year, reaching 21.2 million units.Sony CFO, Nobuyuki Oneda commented on the surprising plummet in PSP sales by stating that Sony will not give up on the platform. He noted that Sony is still implementing new ideas for the constantly evolving system. For the sake of PSP fans everywhere, let's hope that they can reinvigorate the public opinion of the system.[Via IGN]
