Cameras, notebooks buoy Sony sales record
updated 03:25 pm EDT, Thu October 25, 2007
Record Sony sales
Global electronics company Sony is reporting record second-quarter profits, in spite of serious business setbacks, says Agence France-Presse. Net profits for the period rose to $646.5 million, a drastic improvement on the $15 million earned the year prior. The company is now working with a Q2 operating profit of $938 million, whereas a year ago the posted figure was just $70.2 million. Sales are expected to continue rolling in as new 1080p TV sets debut in the second half of the financial year.
Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda attributes the resurgence, though, mainly to high sales of its Cyber-shot cameras and VAIO notebooks, rather than TVs like those in the Bravia line. The company was in fact hurt severely by losses of $848.6 million in its gaming division, which while selling 1.31 million PlayStation 3s, took a penalty on each console by selling for less than production costs. This is in fact a practice common to console makers, but Nintendo has bucked the trend with the Wii, which generates a profit for each unit sold while still being the world's best-selling console system.
