Sony, a consumer electronics bellwether for Japan and maker of iconic products like the Walkman music player, recorded a net loss of ¥15.5 billion ($198.7 million) in the quarter ended June. That compared with a net profit of ¥25.7 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Operating profit for the quarter was sliced by more than half to ¥27.5 billion from ¥67.02 billion a year earlier. Revenue declined about 10% to ¥1.49 trillion from ¥1.66 trillion.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

In a blog post, comScore noted that just after the March 11 earthquake, there was a spike in traffic from both PCs and mobile users, but that over the next few days, the increase shifted mainly to mobile devices. Japan, it notes, is the country with the highest rate of mobile media use, with three-quarters of cell phone owners using various mobile media.

“In the wake of the disaster, with those who were stranded unable to use computers to get information or rely on landlines to communicate with loved ones, mobile media use in Japan saw an increase,” comScore said in a blog post.

Mobile traffic was up even when taking into account typical weekend usage patterns and the fact that some cellular services were interrupted following the quake.

The iPhone, as a device, is in the same generation power-wise as the PS2 or Xbox. The graphics are a little lower but the RAM is a lot higher. … You could easily spend $10 million on an iPhone game, but the market just can’t support that yet.”

– John Carmack, co-founder of id Software and creator of the “Doom,” “Quake” and “Wolfenstein” franchises, says iPhone users have a lot to look forward to.