Spider-Man helps Sony swing back into black
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JAPANESE electronics giant Sony has reported a quarterly profit gain thanks to the hit movie Spider-Man 2, while rival Matsushita, owner of the Panasonic and Technics brands, benefited from bumper sales of flat-screen TVs.
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Shares of electronics maker Sony Corp.  slid to a five-week low on Friday after it cut its profit  target due to sharply falling prices of televisions and other  key products, shaking investor confidence.
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Sony will release its smash sequel "Spider-Man 2" on VHS and a two-disc DVD during the holiday season, on Nov. 30.
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Just when Sony appears to have turned around its electronics business, another part of its sprawling empire &#151; video games &#151; is dragging down profits.
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(InfoWorld) - Sony plans to launch an online video download service next year, according to reports in both the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal newspapers. The service has been developed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and will allow users to download movies via a computer and store them on MemoryStick memory cards for viewing on the PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld games device, said the Financial Times. Amazon.com and existing movie download sites like Movielink and CinemaNow are in talks with Sony to use the service, which will launch in the first quarter of 2007, the newspaper reported in its online edition. Sony is also working on a service that would allow downloads directly to the PSP, said The Wall Street Journal's online edition. Spokespersons for both Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo deferred requests for comment to the company's U.S. offices, which were closed. Sony has already tried to expand the PlayStation Portable's uses beyond gaming to movies. It began offering movies on the small discs used by the PSP but sales have been low and the movies never caught on among many users. The PlayStation Portable was launched in late 2004 and initially enjoyed strong sales. By the end of March 2005 shipments had reached 3 million units and jumped to over 14 million units in the year from April 2005. But things soon started going wrong for the new device and sales began dropping. In the current year, from April 2006 to March 2007, Sony initially expected sales to drop to 12 million units but in October revised its forecast to 9 million units. The successful launch of a movie download service could help flagging sales of PSP hardware and give Sony something to begin to challenge Apple Computer's iTunes Store, where iPod owners can download video clips, TV shows and some movies. Sony doesn't offer a video version of its Walkman music player leaving it unable to compete with Apple on the video front.
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Ability to save files directly to Sony's PlayStation Portable handheld gaming device could boost falling sales.
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It has been 25 years since Sony launched the original Walkman, now the portable entertainment scene is going through a energetic renaissance, but this time it is digital.
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Under the tested and true name of &quot;Walkman&quot;, Sony is launching its new MP3 compatible player. The device is the company&#39;s secret weapon in trying to reclaim its
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Electronics giant Sony has reversed its position on the formats playable by its range of digital music players. The company has announced its new devices will now be able to play music tracks in the MP3 format
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Sony is betting its latest creation, PlayStation Home, will help to quell criticism that the console falls far behind its rivals in online  support. Executives for the company announced the service at the Game Developers Conference.
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Long after the advent of the video iPod, Sony has finally responded with a video Walkman, which it will release in April.
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When Sony Corp. President Kunitake Ando showed off the new Walkman meant to counter the assault by Apple's iPod portable music player, he held the prized gadget at the gala event upside down.
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In a major strategic reversal, Sony Corp. said Wednesday it plans to add support for MP3 music files to some of its portable music players.
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Sony's upcoming gaming device earns mostly positive reviews from the crowd.
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By Evening Standard, London  Jan. 31--Electronics giant Sony is heading for a $2 billion (Â£1.01  billion) loss in its video games division after the surprise success of rival  Nintendo's Wii console.
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January was a good month  for Sony's video game business. For the first time, its  PlayStation 3 outsold its own PS2 as well as Microsoft's Xbox  360.
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The planned $3 billion deal would give Sony a library of more than 4,100 titles. Also: Vivendi says its recovery is almost complete, despite large losses & hellip;. Canon and Toshiba team up to produce next-generation flat display panels & hellip;. and more.