Sony forecasts huge profit thanks to iPhone camera

Sony lost $1.1bn in the last financial year after a turbulent few months which saw its movie studio attacked by suspected North Korean hackers. But it expects to bounce back with a profit of $1.2bn in this financial year thanks to booming demand for its image sensors used in Apple’s iPhone 6. The expensive fallout from the hacking saga was compounded by the rise of cheap Chinese smartphones which managed to dent Sony’s mobile division. A series of layoffs and asset sales, coupled with the withdrawal from the laptop market, capped off the tough 12-month period.

Whether it’s a device that goes into other manufacturers’ products or sometimes our own, if there’s innovation there … that’s something I get excited about.

Sony President Kazuo Hirai

But a source of cheer for the company is its production of camera sensors used in the latest iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S6. Demand for the sensors is expected to continue to rise, and Sony is investing $1.7bn to boost output. Each phone sold generates around $20 of revenue for Sony, which is now the world’s largest supplier of image sensors in digital cameras.

Business sony iphone