Sony Corp, widely regarded as a key supplier of image sensors for Apple’s iPhones, said yesterday it was bracing for a slowdown in the premium smartphone market after sales of its sensors fell in the third quarter. 
Videogame sales and cost cuts in Sony’s flagging mobile unit pushed October-December operating profit up 11%, beating analyst estimates, but the firm confirmed a much-feared hit to a segment that in recent quarters helped it shake off years of losses. 
Worries about weaker iPhone sales and a slowdown in China’s smartphone market — the world’s biggest — have weighed on Sony shares in recent weeks. The stock closed up 6.1% ahead of earnings, still down around 16% since the start of 2016. 
Sony also said October-December sales of devices, including image sensors, fell 13% from a year earlier. The segment, also hit by weak battery sales, booked a loss of ¥11.7bn compared with a ¥53.8bn profit in the year prior. 
In addition to image sensors, Sony has depended on cost cuts and strong sales of PlayStation 4 games to improve its bottom line over the past year. 
The two factors helped its fiscal third-quarter operating profit rise 11% from a year earlier to ¥202.1bn ($1.68bn), beating the average ¥175bn forecast of 8 analysts according to Thomson Reuters data. 
It said quarterly sales of its game and network services division rose 11%, helped by strong holiday sales of PlayStation 4 videogames. It raised its full-year forecast for the division to an operating profit of ¥85bn from an October forecast of 80bn. 
In mobile, sales fell 15% in a division struggling to compete with Apple and Samsung Electronics, as well as low-cost Asian rivals. But operating income more than doubled to ¥24bn as Sony cut spending on marketing and development and gave up its pursuit of market share. 
The company maintained its outlook for full-year operating profit to grow to ¥320bn from 68.5bn in the previous year.