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PlayStation sells well (again), but mobile is hurting Sony
Sony made money. Again! The company saw in tiny increase (0.5%) in sales compared to the same quarter last to 2,581 billion yen (or $21.5 billion), but income now stands at $1.69 billion. This quarter's financial results was yet more balancing (and canceling) out of Sony's many moving parts -- profitable and not. Gaming and Motion Picture arms saw increases in sales, but these were cancelled out by woes in Mobile and Devices arms. Once a positive part of the company's earnings sheets, Sony's smartphone camera sensors saw a decrease in sales -- reflecting the tough times that all companies are experiencing with phone sales. The company seems to be stabilizing its giant electronics ship.
Samsung's price cuts for high-end phones worked, but hurt profits
First, the good news for Samsung: it made more money in the third quarter (as it predicted) than it did in the same period last year. In 2015 it racked up $6.46 billion in operating profit for Q3, which is far better than 2014's $3.8 billion haul, but still not back to 2013's peak of $9.6 billion. In its detailed release today (PDF), Samsung confirmed brisk sales of new flagships like the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy 6 Edge+ but price reductions on the new S6 models and more sales of midrange phones.
Google continues to grow thanks to strong mobile and YouTube ads
Google is now Alphabet, but the company has one more quarter of results to report under its old business structure. As usual, Google's advertising business made up the lion's share of the company's revenue, totaling 89.9 percent of the money Google pulled in. And this was another quarter in which the company's strong mobile advertising and YouTube advertising units led the way -- Google's recently-appointed CEO Sundar Pichai continually referred to the strength and potential of mobile throughout his remarks on today's investor call, saying "internally all of our objectives are focused on mobile." He also said that mobile search now outstrips desktop -- more than 50 percent of Google searches come from mobile phones.
Netflix says its price hike is all about acquiring more content
Netflix has released its quarterly earnings today (PDF), and so far, the folks on Wall Street aren't responding positively. Of course, customers have already heard the big news -- Epix movies and Sesame Street are gone, its first movie Beasts of No Nation premieres tomorrow night and the price for most of us will go up $1 next year. So what's driving a stock drop (down about eight percent after the results came out)? It didn't add as many new subscribers in the US as it had predicted (1.15 million predicted vs. 880,000 actual), and with plans to spend some $5 or $6 billion on content in 2016, it will need to grow to pay for all of that. According to CEO Reed Hastings the recent price hike is meant to "improve its ability to acquire and offer high quality content," but Disney doesn't come cheap. Update: Reed Hastings asked his own question of content boss Ted Sarandos (at about 22 minutes into the video stream, embedded after the break), about the likelihood of Netflix competing directly with Vice in the next two years. Sarandos' response, was that it is " probably high." So while it's not looking at sports, news is probably next up. They also confirmed Star Wars Episode VII will not be a part of its agreement with Disney, which kicks in during Q4 next year.
Intel's profit drops as PC sales keep sliding
Where goes the PC market, so goes Intel's profit... and unfortunately, that means those profits are headed south. Intel is reporting a 6.3 percent year-over-year income drop for the third quarter that can largely be blamed on tanking PC sales. While it did see upticks in its data center and internet of things groups, they weren't making nearly enough money to offset the loss from Intel's bread-and-butter chip business. Processor shipments dropped a sharp 19 percent, and the only consolation was a 15 percent hike in selling prices -- in short, those who did buy PCs were more likely to be performance mavens (like pros and enthusiasts) than everyday shoppers.
Microsoft's Surface sales are on the upswing once again
After a very slow start, Microsoft's Surface finally seems to be hitting its stride. The company made $713 million from Surface sales last quarter, a 44 percent jump over last year, according to its latest earnings report. And yes, it's attributing much of that to the Surface Pro 3, which also saw strong sales during the previous quarter. While any bump is good, it's easy for Microsoft to report revenue growth when it's starting from a low point. Apple sold around $9 billion worth of iPads during the last quarter, for comparison. It's also worth noting that the company's third quarter doesn't include sales of the new Surface 3, which doesn't ship until next month. It'll be interesting to see if that model ends up helping its Pro sibling come next quarter. Before the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft's Surface sales weren't exactly pretty -- at one point it had to write off nearly $900 million in unsold units.
