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Nintendo’s first-half profit plunged as sales of its hit Wii home console fizzled, forcing it to forecast annual earnings would fall for the first time in six years. The recent global price cut for the Wii also hurt Nintendo, which Thursday reported its profit for the April-September period was down 52 percent from a year earlier.
Sony stuck to a forecast for big full-year losses, citing falling gadget prices and a shaky global recovery, even as it posted less-dismal-than-expected results for the fiscal first quarter. The maker of the PlayStation 3 game machine and Walkman portable music player said Thursday it sank to a net loss for April-June of $391 million from a $365 million profit a year earlier.
When the Sony Walkman went on sale 30 years ago, it was shown off by a skateboarder to illustrate how the portable cassette-tape player delivered music on-the-go — a totally innovative idea back in 1979. Today, Sony is struggling to reinvent itself and win back its reputation as a pioneer of razzle-dazzle gadgetry once exemplified in the Walkman.
Acer of Taiwan said Friday it plans solid growth in the previously hard-to-crack Japanese market with a new slim, lightweight laptop that boasts an eight-hour battery life and a cheap price. Japan has long been dominated by its own big-name electronics makers, and outsiders have had a relatively hard time making headway, even Acer, the world’s third-largest vendor of PCs after HP and Dell.
Sony reported its first annual net loss in 14 years and forecast a bigger loss this year, saying the pressure from sliding sales, competition in gadget prices and a strong yen was expected to continue. The Japanese electronics and entertainment company said Thursday it lost $1.72 billion in the January-March quarter, compared to a $303 billion profit for the same period the previous year.