After years of struggles from its phone division, Sony has finally figured out how to break even: by shrinking everything dramatically and benefiting from favorable exchange rates. The Japanese company today reports a slender quarterly profit of ¥21.2 billion ($205 million), though the highlight is that its perennially struggling mobile group is now in the black by the slimmest of margins.
At this point last year, Sony was reporting a profit four times larger and was, overall, doing much better than it is today, albeit hamstrung by smartphone losses. The good news now is that, with a ¥400 million ($4 million) profit, Sony’s mobile division is actually accretive to the company’s fortunes. The bad news is that, as Sony explains, "during...
