The yen is the only reason Sony is still in business

[TwoThreeSoFly]

theprof00 said:

One thing I'm noting about this yen depreciation thing here is that people are pretending like Sony is only making profit because of the yen. I read in another article the same thing "Sony's sales increased 17%, but had the yen not changed, they would have slipped 3%". And "oh, it's funny to see Sony fans pretending like the yen impact had nothing to do with this"

I feel like people are really failing to take into consideration that the previous USDJPY was NOT normal. Pre 9/11, the yen was 144 to the dollar. That's almost 50% better than it is today. In ten years, the yen grew 64 cents on the dollar, from 144 to the high 70s. Now people are saying "it's only because the yen is slipping that Sony is profitting". No, you have that backwards. It's only because the dollar TANKED the past ten years after 9/11 that Sony was ever in trouble. Imagine running a huge multinational like Sony, whose primary product is luxury high end technology with low margins, and then imagine all you revenue now being worth 50% less. Of course Sony is having a hard time.

Now you might say, "oh prof, you [clever roundabout way of saying fanboy], maybe that makes sense in your world, but Sony would have still had trouble with their competitors. In the end, it was smart competition from Samsung and LG and many others who put the nail in the coffin for Sony."

*rolls eyes*

Let's take a look at why Samsung is able to price the way they do.

90'	711		98'	1404		06'	954
91'	737		99'	1190		07'	929
92'	784		00'	1131		08'	1100
93'	806		01'	1292		09'	1275
94'	807		02'	1250		10'	1155
95'	773		03'	1192		11'	1107
96'	805		04'	1146		12'	1126
97'	954		05'	1024		13'

12 months average 1109
10 year average 1096
highest in 12 months 1163
lowest 1061

Highest ever 1707 (1998)
lowest ever 669 (1989)

Now let's look again at the yen

90'	144		98'	130		06'	116
91'	134		99'	113		07'	117
92'	126		00'	107		08'	103
93'	111		01'	121		09'	93
94'	102		02'	125		10'	87
95'	94		03'	115		11'	79
96'	108		04'	108		12'	79
97'	121		05'	110		13'	100

Average last 12 months 86
Average last 10 years 100
High last 12 months 100
Lowest last 12 months 78

Highest ever 358 (1971)
lowest ever 76 (2011)

So what can we read about this?
Well, granted that my point about the Korean Won should be already apparent, The yen has been steadily getting stronger over the years. From 1971, the JPY has fallen 250% from what it is today. In the last gen of consoles, it has fallen to a low of 30% for almost a full 3 years, that's nearly half the gen.

The average yen during ps1 was 112
During the ps2 era, the yen was 114
During the ps3 era, the yen was 94

That represents a 20% drop in revenue.
I don't have time to go through the past 7 years and add 20 percent to their revenues and find a true representation, nor would I be able to compromise for the fact that the yen allowed for a stable economic korea to move in with cheaper products.

The point is, let's be a little bit more professional about how we understand our information. There are far too many people masquerading as analysts who really need to put some perspective on the industry as a whole. The yen is but a small part of it, which, as I've demonstrated, has accounted for more than 20% of missed revenue, missed revenue that accounts for margin, missed revenue that could've been a major difference this past gen. Don't get me wrong. Sony is slimmer and faster and more well equipped than it's ever been, primarily due to the yen hurting the company so much. This just means that once the yen returns to normal, Sony is going to be in a much better position. So, there was some good that came out of it. But let's stop pretending like Sony prays to the Currency gods to make profit. Their entire business model was strangled by the world economy for a solid 10 years.

It is not these companies fault that the U.S. is ne of the least appealing places to live based off salary and cost of living. It is just reduce louts how much it costs to own and operate a business here in the U.S. and it is going to get worse. It is not that Sony is doing good only because of the Yen. It is more like they would be doing a whole lot better if the liberals hadn't killed our economy like they are continueing to do so a bunch of lazy fucks can sit on their ass and not work and expect handouts. And that is my personal opinion. Ad no I didn't come from money. I was born in the poorest state, Mississippi, net to college and worked my ass of to get to where I am. And I am a minority and don't sit back and use that as an excuse.