Sony on right track as chips and music power earnings surge

Tokyo

SONY Corp seems to be grooving to an upbeat tempo as the Japanese electronics and entertainment company posted quarterly profit that topped analyst estimates, thanks to demand for smartphone camera chips, a healthy music business and brisk sales of PlayStation 4 consoles and games. Operating profit was 157.6 billion yen (S$1.9 billion) in the fiscal first quarter that ended in June, beating analysts' average projection of 133.3 billion yen. Sales rose 15 per cent to 1.86 trillion yen, topping predictions.

After a tumultuous year that included an earthquake that crippled camera-chip production and a US$1 billion writedown in films, the latest quarter is a return to stability for chief executive officer Kazuo Hirai. The increasing number of PlayStation 4 owners is driving sales of software and online services, while smartphone makers adopt more camera chips per device and more people pay to stream music. Still, Sony appears to be playing it safe, keeping its full-year profit guidance of 500 billion yen, even though it lifted its sales forecast by 3.8 per cent to 8.3 trillion yen.