Come April 28th, we’ll know a lot more, but it’s looking like Sony isn’t going to be able to hit their original goals for FY16.

The company booked an impairment loss of ¥59.6B on its camera business. Operating Income for FY now estimated at ¥290B, down from ¥320B.

— ZhugeEX (@ZhugeEX) April 21, 2016 

Just last quarter, Sony’s image sensor division, which has traditionally been a point of strong profits for the company, recorded a surprise loss for the quarter. Now it seems that the division will continue to struggle in the coming quarters as slow down in China and other Asian territories continues along side a maturing smartphone market. Luckily for Sony, we’re headed towards a world that requires more and more sensors – from self-driving cars, to drones, headsets, and 360 camera rigs to name a few. Assuming Sony is able to take advantage of them, and there are already reports of Sony prepping sensors for cars and the company having formed its own drone division with the sole purpose of showing off their camera technology to much larger firms, I have a feeling that the long term prospects for their image sensors are just fine.

Discuss:

Do you think Sony is still on the right path despite this hiccup?