Samsung, Sony Lose Big Money in Third Financial Quarter of Year

By Staff Reporter | Nov 02, 2014 05:05 AM EST

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Japanese tech conglomerate Sony has just absorbed a big hit in their mobile business after it posted $1.2 billion loss during the company's fiscal second quarter. Nevertheless, the company still announced significant gains overall, thanks to the success of its latest flagship video game console, the PlayStation 4.

According to its latest financial declaration, Sony garnered a overall revenue of $17.4 billion but recorded a net loss of $1.2 billion at the end of the second financial quarters (September 30).

The strong sale of PlayStation 4 has certainly buoyed the company's revenue up to 7.2 percent in comparison to the gains recorded in the same financial quarter last year. Nevertheless, the slide of Sony's mobile communication put a big dent on the company's overall success.

"The big story from Sony's earnings was its Mobile Communications business. During the period, the unit saw revenue rise 1.2 percent year over year to $2.8 billion, but slid to a $1.6 billion operating loss. That division effectively wiped out all of the success Sony saw elsewhere during the quarter," according to CNET.com.

Korean cheabol Samsung also recorded its lowest operating profit since the second quarter of 2011, as the third-quarter income of its mobile business saw a 74 percent drop from the previous fiscal year.

Samsung's global smartphone market share also plunged down to less than 24 percent of shipments in the third quarter compared from almost a third of all its units last year.

Worse, Samsung is expected to lose more towards the end of the year due to intense competition in smartphone industry, from high-end rival Apple (iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus) to cheap smartphones manufactured by Chinese and Indian companies.

"The South Korean company on Wednesday reported its lowest operating profits since the second quarter of 2011 and said third-quarter income in its mobile business tumbled 74 percent from the previous year," CNET reported on Friday.

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