Sony says U.S. holiday sales better than expected
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Sony Corp. said U.S. sales of electronics have been better than expected so far this holiday shopping season, fueled by demand for flat-panel televisions and digital cameras.
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(InfoWorld) - Sony's core electronics business more than doubled profits in the last quarter of 2006, but failed to offset price cuts to itsÂ PlayStation 3 game console, leading to an overall profit decline of just over 5 percent, the company said Tuesday. The company said sales and operating revenue increased 9.8 percent to Â¥2.6 trillion ($21.4 billion) while net profit fell 5.3 percent to Â¥159.9 billion. Sony Computer Entertainment, the division responsible for its PlayStation gaming consoles, was the only one of Sony's main business units that registered a loss in the quarter. It lost Â¥54.2 billion primarily due to the retail price of the more expensive of the two consoles being reduced from a planned Â¥62,790 to Â¥49,980 in Japan. The cut was made, Sony said, due to negative feedback from consumers. Sony's electronics business saw profits more than double to Â¥177.4 billion on 16.9 percent higher sales of Â¥1.9 trillion, the company said. The unit had a generally positive quarter with sales of Bravia LCD (liquid crystal display) televisions and Cybershot digital still cameras increasing. Europe saw the biggest percentage sales jump, up 21 percent, thanks to better LCD TV and Vaio PC sales, while tough competition in the U.S. TV market meant sales there increased by just 3 percent. Sony Pictures returned to profitability as sales there jumped 47 percent, but sales in the financial services division fell 9 percent. Underlining the generally positive results, Sony revised its full-year profit forecast upward for the year to the end of March. It now expects to record a net profit of Â¥110 billion for the year, up from its previous forecast of Â¥80 billion, although still lower than the Â¥124 billion it reported last year. The sales forecast was left unchanged. Sony's mid-term business plan has targeted a profit margin of 5 percent for the coming fiscal year. Sony's electronics business is already meeting its part of the target and will continue to do so next year however the games unit needs to improve, Sony's chief financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda said at a Tokyo news conference on Tuesday. He expects to bring the company's games unit closer to break-even in the second half, he said. Sony will target cost savings in the PlayStation 3 by introducing more advanced chips and consolidating components to reduce the overall number of parts, he said. The company is already on the way to the first of these targets, with the recent start of production of a new version of the Cell processor built with a 65-nanometer production process. The chip in current consoles is built using a 90-nanometer process and the upcoming switch will mean a chip that is 40 percent smaller. Costs will fall in line with the size reduction, Sony said. It did not say when the new chip will appear in consoles. Sony wouldn't provide anyÂ PlayStation 3 shipment estimatesÂ for the coming financial year but said it remains confident it will ship 6 million consoles up to March. It also revised upwards its PlayStation 2 shipment forecast from 11 million units to 13 million units. Sony counts shipments as finished consoles leaving its factory for Sony warehouses and distributors. Oneda ruled out the possibility of further price cuts in the near future, but hinted that this could happen in two or three years' time. Â
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Sony Corp.   said on  Wednesday it sees its electronics sales growth outpacing the  industry in the current fiscal year, fueled by demand for big  televisions and digital cameras, while a decline in component  pricing could benefit profits.
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Sony Corp  swung to a quarterly operating profit as robust sales of digital cameras and camcorders helped offset videogame losses, and it raised its annual outlook that exceeds market expectations.
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Sales of video game hardware and software were up in December from a year earlier as holiday shoppers snapped up new consoles, market research firm NPD said.
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Microsoft posted solid growth in quarterly sales and profit on Thursday, buoyed by strong holiday sales of personal computers and video games.
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U.S. sales of video game hardware  and software rose 28 percent in December from a year earlier as  holiday shoppers snapped up new consoles like Nintendo Co Ltd's  (7974.OS) top-selling Wii, market research firm NPD said on  Thursday.
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(InfoWorld) - The 2006 holiday shopping period got off to a strong start over the weekend, according to several e-commerce operators. The Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday is typically seen as the start of the holiday sales season in the U.S. and retail outlets across the nation see some of the largest crowds of the year on that day. In recent years, online retailers also report strong traffic on the day. While consumers may be opening their wallets to online retailers like never before, there's also evidence they are after bargains like never before. Two online price comparison sites, which point consumers to the lowest prices for various items, reported surging traffic. Pricegrabber.com said it's seen a 45 percent increase year-over-year in referrals to merchants for November to date. In some categories, including toys, sporting goods and apparel, the amount of traffic sent to retailers by Pricegrabber has more than doubled, it said. Rival site Shopping.com reported a 40 percent jump in November-to-date referrals to online retailers and said hot categories include kids and family, home and garden, and clothing and accessories. Despite the strong traffic, Monday is likely to be busier, said Shopping.com. Last year visitors to the site peaked between noon and 2 p.m. on Monday. Two of the season's hottest holiday gift items, the recently-launched PlayStation 3 and Wii games consoles, have been selling fast on Ebay. In the week to Nov. 24, 14,675 PlayStation 3 and 26,708 Wii consoles were sold through the site. The average price of the PS3 was US$1,186.39 while the Wii fetched an average $412.53, according to eBay Marketplace Research. Both prices are well above their suggested retail prices. Other hot electronics items include the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. BDP-1000 Blu-ray Disc player and Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod nano and iPod Shuffle, the company said.
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U.S. retail sales jumped a  more-than-expected 1.2 percent in December, but first-time  jobless claims posted a surprise climb and import prices dipped  more than anticipated, government reports showed on Thursday.
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U.S. online retailers posted  holiday sales of $23.2 billion, excluding travel, up a  larger-than-expected 25 percent from the 2003 season, according  to a new survey released on Monday by Goldman, Sachs & Co.,  Harris Interactive and Nielsen/NetRatings.
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Video game retailer posts strong results leading into holiday quarter.
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U.S. chain store sales rose in the week ended December 4, as average sales were generally ahead of last year, but customer counts were down, a report said on Tuesday.
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Sony says sales of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console in the US hit 1.2 million over the Christmas period.
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In the latest snapshot of the holiday shopping season, the government reported today that retail sales increased 0.1 percent in November, a better performance than Wall Street had been expecting.
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U.S. chain store retail sales rose in  the latest week, as consumers picked up the pace of holiday  shopping, a retail report said on Tuesday.
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Strong sales and lower production costs should boost Sony's take on game console, exec says.
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Sony Corp  will launch a cheaper model of its PlayStation 3 in the United States, hoping to attract more buyers as it goes up against rival game consoles from Microsoft and Nintendo this holiday.