Splat F analyzes the tech business, covering company earnings, Apple, Sony, Google, Twitter, and mobile payments with charts and numbers.
HN commenters link it for concise financial breakdowns, such as Apple's revenue growth versus Google's and the finding that Sony's profit comes largely from life insurance.
This reminds me of an interesting little fact I learned about how Sony makes money: Life insurance and personal finance!
Source: http://www.splatf.com/2011/11/sony-profits/
Consumer electronics still generate most of its revenues (about half) - but just like GE, Sony appears to make a lot more profit financing the acquistion of their goods rather than from the goods themselves (GE makes more financing hydro-turbines for governments than from the turbines themselves).
Curious to think that the entire PlayStation line might not just be a loss leader for games, but also for the entire Sony financing arm.
Many profitable businesses tail off very slowly over years, throwing off excellent revenue in the process. Last year, for example, AOL made $175 million off 3 million customers who still subscribe to its dial-up business.[1] Those businesses can become even more profitable in the near term if your strategy is to cut marketing/operating costs to the bone and "ride them down". It sounds very mercenary, but that can be the right approach when there is no growth potential.
[1] http://www.splatf.com/2012/07/aol-3million-chart/
A case in point:
http://www.splatf.com/2012/11/ipad-mini/
7 inch tabets are stupid, 10 inch tablets are perfect, but actually now that Apple's released a 7.9 inch tablet it turns out that that is the perfect size.
(7 inch tablets are still stupid by the way, I don't think the community has settled on a rationalisation for this. They could have gone for 16:9 being the wrong ratio, but it turns out, after the iPhone 5 adopted it, that it was actually very good for video.)
Sony made this same mistake in the 80's by buying a movie studio. I can't see Apple going down this road of diversification through acquisition.
Then again, Sony's terrible product divisions are propped up by their massive sales in life insurance and the company wouldn't exist without it:
http://www.splatf.com/2011/11/sony-profits/
some interesting points:
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More than 90% of Americans still don’t own an iPhone. Heck, two-thirds of Americans still don’t own a smartphone. So the iPhone 4 design isn’t “old” to them.
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http://www.splatf.com/2011/10/iphone-4s/
Interesting tidbit in the article is that majority of Sony's profit comes from their life insurance business:
http://www.splatf.com/2011/11/sony-profits/