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.

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

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.

Great article, I never tought about that that way.

Still, the yen is not the only reason they made profit this quarter, they tried to be more currency fluctuation proof in the last years; and the mobile division did bring a lot.
And the financial part is still greatly profitable.

I just hope they fix their TV division. If there's anything I've learned from the Xperia Z's horrible display and the Vita using a Samsung display, Sony's panels just aren't what they used to be.

this is part of the problem shonen, the korean won has only gotten better over the past ten years. and why...the country being more financially secure should be losing strength, but it isn't, they're making more. Because of major losses in depreciation and inability to price competitively with samsung, sonys tv division took major cuts to r&d and manufacturing. they actually ended up selling some major plants making screens and now just buy from samsung. its not because samsung makes better screens, its because sony for the past ten years vouldnt afford to make better screens.
its a continuous spiral.
meanwhile, you ask why most people buy samsung...its almost always because its cheaper. at best buy during black friday last year there were open box sonys and discounted samsungs. within 5 minutes all the sonys were gone, even at 10% higher cost for the same size. why? because 10% is allowable for a sony. that's the kind of brand they have. people are willing to spend that much more.
they aren't, however, willing to spend 30% more, which is what samsung has been able to do for quite a while now.
Just think about it for a second.
samsung makes margin on their tvs at 30% less price in store. Sony for the past ten years couldn't even make margin on tvs at a 30% higher pricetag. That says a lot about the currency situation.

Come to think of it, that was also the main reason Nintendo profited as well.

Both are lucky the yen is seeing weaker days. I miss the days when the yen was as "strong as bull"

Why do you miss those days? Also it's not just the companies that are lucky. All the employees are too.

Yup ... as the yen strengthens against the dollar (or the dollar weaken against the yen) Sony's products become less competitive due to cost in foreign markets. Plus with this Sony's profits were mitigated after they repatriated their earnings. That's double trouble really. This has gone on for quite some time and it has squeezed them. A lot of it had to do with people seeing the yen as a safe haven.

So Japanese companies suffered?

What about those buildings they sold and layoffs?

Luck had nothing to do with this for better or worst.

Yep! You make good sense giving a weak yen credit for Sony's results.

But Sony's mobile products division posted operating income of $60 million, a significant improvement from an operating loss of $356 million a year earlier. The company attributed the turnaround to an increase in the sale of smartphones