Sony quadruples forecast loss for financial year

PlayStation maker Sony has quadrupled the amount of money it expects to lose this financial year in a profit warning it blamed on smartphones.

Sony described it as "the impairment of goodwill in the mobile communications segment", which means it had another look at its Xperia smartphones business and found it in even worse shape than it thought it was in.

The impairment amounts to 180 billion yen - or a whopping £1.04 billion - and this is how it affects Sony's bottom line: in July the company said it expected to make a loss of 50 billion yen for the financial year. Now, it reckons it'll make a loss of 230 billion yen - or £1.3 billion. It now expects an operating loss of 40 billion yen instead of the 140 billion yen profit it forecast in July.

While the PlayStation business - fuelled by the success of PlayStation 4 - continues to perform well, the wider Sony Corporation is struggling. This is the sixth downward revision under boss Kaz Hirai, who took the top job on in 2012 promising to return the company to profit.

Something needs to be done about those pesky smartphones, then. Reuters suggests sales of the Xperia have suffered in the US in particular because they're only available on T-Mobile there - the fourth largest carrier. Sony's answer is to focus on its premium lineup and reduce the number of mid-range models.