As John Gruber often notes, Bluetooth’s motto should be:

 Next year it will work great 

and I’m starting to think it’s time for us to adopt a similar stance on Sony’s earning reports, be it for next quarter or next calendar year. According to the AP, Sony’s

 net profit plunged 86 percent in the last quarter from a year earlier, the company said Tuesday, as its profitability was hammered by a strong yen and lagging smartphone sales. 

Specifically Sony reported

 a 4.8 billion yen ($45.8 million) net profit in July-September. Net profit was 33.6 billion yen in the same period a year earlier. 

That means for the same quarter last year, Sony reported a net profit of roughly $360 million where today, that number is closer to $46 million. Not to say last year was great when compared to other tech giants but if there is an overall silver lining, it’s that the company is still reporting a profit for the quarter (more on that in a minute) and not a loss which became synonymous with Sony throughout the last decade. To put things into perspective however, during their most recent earnings report which took place two weeks ago, analysts were disappointed with Apple when they reported

 a revenue of $46.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $9 billion 

Different companies to be sure, but if Sony wants to play in the big leagues, they most also have products worthy of that which is why I’ve been so infatuated and partially harsh on the Xperia Ear. With now a much smaller profit for the quarter when compared to 2015, Sony will once again finish the year in the red (about that profit).

 Sony said it would book a net loss of 37.5 billion yen ($358 million) in its profit for the full fiscal year that ends March 31. It slashed its forecast for full-year net profit to 60 billion yen ($573 million) from an earlier estimate of 80 billion yen. Sony recorded a net profit of 147.8 billion yen in the last fiscal year. 

When it comes to luck, Sony tends to get it worse than most other companies and two main factors affecting their FY2016 earnings were an earthquake in early 2016, which caused their Japanese image sensor facility to be down for months, and the sale of their battery business. Obviously the former is luck and the latter is part of Sony’s strategy of selling off businesses that aren’t working.

 On Monday, Sony announced it expects a larger loss than earlier anticipated in connection with the 17.5 billion yen ($167 million) sale of its battery business to the Murata Group. 

Then again, selling off divisions at larger-than-expected losses isn’t anything entire new for Sony either right? Which brings us back to Gruber’s quote, but with a twist.

 Sony – next year things will be better 

Also, it’s time to let go of Xperia phones right?

Discuss:

Do you think part of Sony’s earnings troubles is bad luck?