Sony
Sony sold about 1 million PlayStation 3 consoles in the past three weeks, almost the number of units sold last quarter, after Hirai cut the price by 25 percent last month. The increase </a>in hardware shipments may lead to higher sales of game software and peripherals, the 48-year-old executive said.
“We think we need to make much of the profitability of the PS3 platform as a whole, including hardware, software and peripherals,” Hirai, president of the Networked Products & Services Group, said in an interview yesterday. “We are not in the hardware business but the entertainment business.”
In the first quarter since Hirai took over in April to compete against Nintendo Co. and Apple Inc., the division posted a 39.7 billion yen ($436 million) loss, the biggest among Tokyo- based Sonys business groups, after PlayStation 3 sales tumbled to a two-year low.
Sony rose 3.1 percent to close at 2,670 yen in Tokyo trading yesterday. The stock has gained 39 percent this year, compared with the 16 percent advance by Japans benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average.
Sales Target
Since the price cut, PS3 sales are on course to meet the annual target of rising 29 percent to 13 million units, Hirai said. Boosting sales of PS3 consoles by about 30 percent may lead to an increase in sales of software and accessories by a similar rate, he said.
Reducing the number of components and the cost of making the main Cell processor chip have helped improve the PS3s profitability, Hirai said, declining to provide specific numbers.
The company last month started selling its first so-called netbook computers to capitalize on the surge in demand for sub- $500 laptops. Sony said in July it will probably boost sales of Vaio computers to 6.2 million units in the year ending March 2010 from 5.8 million units a year earlier.
In February, Chairman Howard Stringer named Hirai and Hiroshi Yoshioka as heads of Sonys electronics operations after ousting Ryoji Chubachi as president. Yoshioka, 56, heads the business group that makes Bravia televisions, Cyber-shot cameras, as well as audio and video products.