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Apple, Sony, revenues rise, but iPhone slips

Despite a small slip in iPhone sales, Apple reported increased revenues, while distant rival Sony has made a turnaround.

Apple this week reported posted quarterly revenue of $52.9 billion, compared to $50.6 billion in the year-ago quarter. Despite this, iPhone sales were down marginally, from 51.19-million a year ago to 50.76-million in the last quarter.

“We are proud to report a strong March quarter, with revenue growth accelerating from the December quarter and continued robust demand for iPhone 7 Plus,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve seen great customer response to both models of the new iPhone 7 RED Special Edition and we’re thrilled with the strong momentum of our Services business, with our highest revenue ever for a 13-week quarter.”

Meanwhile, lagging far behond but turning around from a loss-making situation, Sony Mobile Communications has reported a profit of $91 Million for the past year.

Sony Mobile expects to increase annual smartphone unit sales by 1.9 million year-on-year, mainly in the Middle East and Europe, to 16.5 million units. Sales revenue is expected to result in record operating income for Sony Mobile.

Sony Mobile has put emphasis on higher value-added models to achieve profitability. Operating results improved significantly mainly due to a reduction in operating costs and benefit from restructuring initiatives. Further improvement in profitability resulted from a concentration on fewer geographic areas and a reduction in restructuring charges.

Jason Smith, Vice President, Middle East & Africa at Sony Mobile Communications said: “Advances included in our new smartphones have positioned us as a technological leader in the global market and our innovation gives us confidence for the future. Our latest award-winning smartphone, Xperia XZ Premium, features the world’s first super slow motion video capture via a smartphone at 960 frames per second, four times slower than with any other smartphone. Other products to address the mid-range of the market launched this year include Xperia XA1, the XA1 Ultra and the Xperia L1.

Hideyuki Furumi, Executive Vice President, Global Sales & Marketing, Sony Mobile Communications said: “We are committed to the vision of offering personalised and intelligent products to the market and continue to push the boundaries of communication through cutting-edge technologies. We are developing Artificial Intelligence apps on our phones. We have continued to evolve and transform our smartphone portfolio, with an unwavering focus on delivering the most advanced technology in elegantly designed products. We expect to see a good next year financially, with a range of new products and increasing smartphone unit sales.”

Sony Corporation, of which Sony Mobile is a division, is targeting its highest annual operating profit in two decades, thanks to continued dominance in gaming and strong growth in phone-camera chips.

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