Sony Chief Promises Return to Profitability
Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai leader promised a comeback for the Japanese electronics and entertainment company having its best profitability in two decades.
Sony held a Corporate Strategy Meeting during which the company's leader provided an update on the progress of the current mid-range plan, the final year of which is the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018 (FY2017). He also explained how Sony plans to achieve its mid-range financial targets and continue to be a company that generates a sustainably high level of profit and creates new value beyond FY2017.
Hirai stressed the profitability in sprawling Sony Corp., including its lucrative PlayStation video-game business, which just came out with a virtual-reality headset.
Hirai also told reporters another important area is Sony's TV sector, which has been in the black for the last few years, after losing money for a decade. The company has already returned to the OLED TV business and plans to focus in the high-end TV market.
He also said profits will be improved in smartphones and movies. Sony's foculs will also be in the CMOS image sensor business and follow the camera trends in the mobile market: acceleration of dual-lens adoption, migration to higher resolution ffront-facing cameras, and emphasising on video functionality.
However, Hirai said he cannot give away details of products in the works such as those using artificial intelligence or the "internet of things," or IoT, technology.
He stressed that Sony has announced an ambitious goal of achieving operating profit of 500 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2018.