Sony's image sensor division posts record income, smartphone business continues to shrink

Sony has published its financial report for the fiscal year that ended on March 31. In summary, the company’s image sensor division is posting record sales, entertainment (movies, TV, music) is doing well and PlayStation operating income is growing (from games and PS Plus mostly). Meanwhile, Sony’s smartphone business is small and continues to shrink.

The Imaging & Sensing Solutions (I&SS) division reported sales of JPY 1.799 trillion for the year, up JPY 196 billion compared to the previous year. Operating income rose to JPY 261 billion, up JPY 67.6 billion year-on-year. Sony notes that foreign exchange rates boosted these numbers higher.

The I&SS division saw increased unit sales of smartphone image sensors combined with an improved product mix (i.e. it was selling more of the pricey models). However, the division reports increased manufacturing costs and warns of higher R&D costs – but that is because it is moving to a more advanced semiconductor node sooner than expected. The goal is to increase the density of the horizontal and vertical planes.

The key takeaway from the report is this: the I&SS division saw record high sales and operating income.

The Entertainment, Technology & Services (ET&S) division is home to various Sony electronics: TVs, still and video cameras, audio and video equipment and, crucially for us, smartphones. The news isn’t good. Sales for the division dropped a bit (from JPY 2.453 trillion to JPY 2.409 trillion), but operating income ticked up a bit (from JPY 187 billion to JPY 190 billion).

No thanks to the smartphone segment – Mobile Communications contributed JPY 279 billion, down from JPY 299 billion for the previous fiscal year. For context, that’s about half of what the TV segment brought in. That said, both TV and smartphone sales were down in terms of units sold.

Game & Network Services (G&NS) saw strong sales of games (and add-on content) – mostly third-party games, first-party games are down. More users shifted towards higher tiers of PlayStation Plus, which increased revenues for network services. However, hardware sales are down.

G&NS reported total sales of JPY 4.670 trillion for the year (up from JPY 4.267 trillion) and an operating income of JPY 414 billion (up from JPY 290 billion).

Other divisions you may be interested in include Sony Pictures – movie sales were up, TV productions down (Sony points to the WGA and SAG strikes), also online subscriptions and advertising revenue is down. Crunchyroll (Sony’s anime streaming platform) reported a growth in paid subscribers, which led to higher revenues. Sony’s acquisition of the Alamo Drafthouse cinemas also seems to be going well.

Sony Music reports higher sales with streaming sales contributing the largest amount. Overall operating income went up from JPY 301 billion to JPY 357 billion.

You can follow the Source link to read the full report.

Source (PDF)