Sony's financial report for Q1 2015 (which ended June 30) revealed a healthy $780 million profit for the company, which is 39 percent more than it was the same quarter last year.
The big surprise was the PlayStation 4 division, which managed to increase its profit by 350 percent; that's more than triple last year's profit for Q1 2014. The company's revenue for the last quarter was $14.8 billion, which is 0.1 percent less year over year.
The company showed strong growth in its gaming, image sensor and music businesses. Sony’s Game & Network services, which includes the PS4, saw $2.3 billion in revenue with a much-increased $160 million in profit, compared to the same quarter last year. Sony claimed that this is due mainly to PS4 software and peripheral sales, as well as a reduced cost of production for PS4 units.
The PlayStation 4 sales have also passed 25 million, which is significantly more than what both the Xbox One (13 million) and the Wii U (10 million) have managed so far, making the PS4 the uncontested leader in the console market.
The company's revenue in mobile fell 16.3 percent year over year, down to $2.3 billion. Sony said that this is mainly due to the company's efforts to increase profitability by reducing the number of smartphone models it sells.
Sony may prefer to focus on fewer and higher-end models, but so far it hasn't been doing that too well, either. For instance, the company's latest flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z3+, has little changed compared to last year's Xperia Z3.
This sort of strategy will inevitably lead to fewer sales and likely less profit if the company ultimately decides to cut its prices to sell more units. At a time when devices such as the OnePlus 2 and the new Moto X series are available with great specs for significantly less money than what a Sony flagship costs, selling a rehashed version of last year's high-end model for similar pricing is not going to do well in the market.
Sony's TV and home AV business saw a 13.8 percent decrease in revenue as well, which the company blamed on poorer performance of mid-range LCDs and a contraction in the market.
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