What you need to know
- Sony shipped just 900,000 smartphones between March 31 and June 30 this year.
- Revenue from the smartphone business fell by 15% compared to the previous quarter.
- Sony's operating profit went up to $2.1 billion (231 billion yen), an increase of 18% compared to last year.
LG wasn't the only big consumer electronics company that struggled to sell its phones during the second quarter of the year. Japanese conglomerate Sony also saw its smartphone sales decline by 15% compared to the previous quarter. More importantly, the company shipped just 0.9 million smartphones between April and June this year, slipping below the 1 million mark for the first time.
The smartphone business, which is a part of the company's Electronics Products & Solutions segment, brought in $4.45 billion (483.9 billion yen) in revenue during the quarter, down from $5.23 billion (568.2 billion yen) a year earlier. While the company had forecasted in April that it would sell 5 million Xperia smartphones this year, it now expects to sell only 4 million units. Last year, the company shipped 6.5 million phones.
As always, the company's imaging division performed well during the quarter, with sales increasing by 14% year-on-year. Operating income also went up from $267 million (29 billion yen) to $455 million (49.5 billion yen). The increase in operating income has been attributed to strong sales of image sensors for smartphones.
PlayStation 4 sales also witnessed a higher than expected drop during the quarter, with shipments of just 3.2 million units. As a result, Sony has downgraded its shipment forecast for the whole year from 16 million to 15 million. The Game and Network Services segment clocked sales of $4.21 billion (457.5 billion yen) in Q1 FY19, down from $4.34 billion (472.1 billion yen) last year.
Sony Xperia 1
Sony Xperia 1 is currently the only flagship Android smartphone to feature a 4K OLED display with an extra-tall 21:9 aspect ratio. The smartphone also offers a capable triple camera array, IP68 water and dust resistance, as well as a near stock build of Android 9 Pie.
