Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve already heard from Sony about the positive effects some of its recent moves like the sales of several of its buildings are having on its finances, and now the company is revealing its detailed results for the last year. Sony has managed a net profit of 43 billion yen ($458 million) in 2012, its first in several years and a good sign after it projected such optimism in last year’s results. The most anticipated news is what it projects for 2013, a year where CEO Kaz Hirai has promised better integration between its products and of course, the PlayStation 4. Sony’s forecast projects sharply improved sales next year, however it expects the operating income to remain flat with a net profit of 50 billion yen ($506 million).

For the year, its TV sales were down 38 percent, reflecting the same drop in the market reported by competitors like Samsung and LG, as well as Sony’s cutbacks to reduce its losses. In phones, the newly-consolidated Sony Mobile experienced an increase in sales thanks to the shift to smartphones, however the cost of its inclusion cause the division to lose money. Next year, it’s anticipating sales of 42 million smartphones, up from 33 million. In the games division, Sony had a decrease in sales for the PS3, PSP and PS Vita of 12.2 percent from last year, although of course it’s counting on the PS4 to turn that around. There aren’t any numbers listed for next-gen, but it’s expecting sales of PS3 hardware to drop to 10 million units from 16.5 million (including the PS2) the year before. We’ll have to wait for the earnings call later this morning to hear more of the company’s future projections, for now you can check the links below for the full details on its results.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile, Sony

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Source: Sony (PDF), Q4 2012 Slides

While there’s no shortage of 3DS iterations headed to the market, Nintendo is having a harder time selling its new Wii U. Profits for the year are also half of its own predictions, despite the fact that Nintendo reduced its rosy estimates in the interim. Net sales are down 1.9 percent over the last year, down to 635 billion yen, but most importantly the company has managed to turn its net income into positive figures, netting 7 billion yen over the last year, compared to a 40 billion yen loss the year before. Following its launch, Wii U sales have slowed substantially, with only 390,000 units sold since December (now totaling 3.45 million), while the 3DS continues to sell in healthier numbers, with Nintendo shifting 1.25 million handhelds in the same period.

Focusing on the next year, the company maintains that it’ll increase net income to 10 billion yen in the next twelve months, with a focus on selling “the compelling nature” of its gaming hardware, as well as pushing its 3DS more in foreign markets. The financial statement adds that the games maker plans to concentrate on “proactively releasing key Nintendo titles” starting the second half of this year “in order to regain momentum.” Those key titles will have to hit hard, as certain competitors‘ new consoles are creeping closer.

In related news, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is taking on a second role as CEO at Nintendo of America, today’s report states. Current NoA figurehead Reggie Fils-Aime will stay on as COO, overseen directly by Iwata.

Filed under: Gaming, Nintendo

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Source: Nintendo

It’s a hard time to be in the tech-retail sector, a fact that Best Buy knows all too well. The business has announced a fourth quarter net loss of $377 million on revenues of $16.7 billion. Incoming CEO Hubert Joly was upbeat despite the bad numbers, saying that the company’s domestic sales helped offset its failures overseas. At the same time, Best Buy announced that founder Richard Schulze’s attempted bid to buy back his company had failed, as the deadline for his offer expired at the end of February. As such, the company will now concentrate on turning a profit without any Apple store-style reinvention.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: Best Buy, (2)

If you’re one Elon Musk, you’re probably ready for just about anything to take the place of the only story dominating the Tesla tagline for the past few weeks. Of course, a $90 million net loss isn’t the ideal story to overtake the Model S kerfuffle, but hey — at least the company’s aiming to pull in a profit next quarter. In a bid to keep investors focused on the positive, the automaker’s Q4 2012 shareholder letter notes that Tesla is officially predicting its first quarterly profit in Q1 2013, sliding up from “late 2013.”

For the quarter that just wrapped, the firm saw revenues of $306 million (a 500 percent increase sequentially from the $50.1 million seen in Q3 2012), and it ended the year with $221 million in total cash after having made the first quarterly principal payment of $12.7 million to repay the loan to the U.S. Department of Energy. Tesla also plans to deliver some 20,000 Model S vehicles in 2013, with around 4,500 of those happening in Q1. Europeans and Asians can expect their deliveries in “summer” / “late this year” (respectively), with the first Model X deliveries to occur in early 2014. Musk also told investors that it plans to “spend significantly less on capital expenditures” in 2013 compared to 2012, helping to (hopefully) generate “slightly positive net income on a non-GAAP basis” in Q1 2013.

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: Tesla

It’s already February of 2013 but who the hell cares. This video is the best summary of 2012 that you can ever find. It splices, chops and combines all the videos we fell in love with on the Internet into an epic tale of ridiculously awesomeness. If someone went to sleep on December 31st, 2011 and woke up a year later on January 1st, 2013, this is the video you would show them. This is like if Picasso, Rembrandt and Monet teamed up to paint one picture. Or if The Beatles and The Stones formed one band. It’s the video version of Watch the Throne. It’s everything the Internet loved in 2012. How many videos can you recognize? How many videos did you watch? [MiamiViceStyle via The Awesomer] More »