Sony Posts Profits But Its Mobile Division Continues to Struggle

Sony’s dwindling smartphone business is nothing new, the company has been suffering losses for a long time now. In the latest development, Sony’s mobile division was the only one in the company’s portfolio to actually register a loss in the last quarter.

For the period between July and September, it incurred a loss of $22.1 million. It sold a total of 3.5 million smartphones in Q3 2017, though the sales were 100,000 less than the same time period last year. The revenue generated from the division is about the same as that of last year.

As a result, it is even lowering its revenue forecasts for the fiscal year (ending in March) to $6.8 billion, from more than $7 billion. This will particularly hurt as last year the company made a profit of $32.4 million from the business rather than a loss.

This is at odds in the bigger picture, as overall Sony has turned up its forecasts by 11.8%.

Sony blamed the rising component costs and a change in geographical sales patterns for the decline. Things are not expected to improve suddenly in the future, so the trend could likely continue.

Overall, Sony registered sales of $18.25 billion in the quarter. On top of those, it registered a net profit of $1.15 billion.

The majority of those came from the likes of PlayStation, which made the company $484.3 million in profit. The image sensor business, which is responsible for the lenses used in dozens of flagship smartphones, also brought in $436.6 million.

The Android market still seems to be restricted when it comes to profit makers. Recently we covered LG mobile’s finances, which decreased by $331 million for the same quarter.

Sony hinted towards a new series of bezelless smartphones which will arrive at the end of the year (possibly January 2018). This could drive up the sales for Sony but don’t hold your breath.