［ソウル ２９日 ロイター］ – 最近まで沸騰していた韓国の不動産市場が突如として暗転し、世界有数の規模の借金を背負っている消費者に重圧がのしかかっている。引き金を引いたのは、記録的なペースの利上げだ。 首都ソウルのマンション価格は先週、過去２年２カ月間で最も大幅な下落に見舞われた。６月の売買件数は…
因 PS5 遊戲銷量下滑 Sony 調低財年利潤預期
因 PS5 遊戲銷量下滑 Sony 調低財年利潤預期，上季度他們售出了 240 萬台 PS5。
Sony lowers forecast for PS5 gaming sales in 2022
At the end of its fiscal year in May, Sony was fairly bullish on gaming sales, predicting sales of 18 million PlayStation 5s for 2022 after selling 11.5 million in 2021. The company also expected a “significant” revenue increase in its gaming division over 2021 due to a boost across “all categories.”
In its latest earnings drop, however, the company has revised its profit forecast down by 16 percent from 305 billion yen ($2.3 billion) in May to 255 billion yen ($1.9 billion), “due to an expected decrease in sales of first party titles,” it wrote. The company also chalked up the drop in revenue to higher expenses due to its acquisition of Bungie Studios closing earlier than expected.
Sony didn’t say anything about its PS5 console forecast, but it sold 2.4 million units this quarter compared to 2.3 million in the same quarter last year (21.7 million units to date). That means it must sell over 5 million units on average for the next three quarters to meet its May forecast — something it has never done before. In May, however, Sony said that it will finally be able to ramp up production to meet PS5 demand as supply chain issues ease — though as it stands now, the consoles are still in short supply.
On the software side, things also went south as Sony sold just 47.1 million titles, including 6.4 million first party games, compared to 63.6 million titles and 10.5 million first-party games in the same quarter of 2021. On top of that, PlayStation Plus users dropped slightly from Q4 (47.3 million instead of 47.4 million), and monthly active users also dropped from 106 to 102 million. Sony introduced the new higher-priced PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers in June, but it has yet to reveal the impact of those — hopefully, we’ll learn more next quarter.
Looking ahead, Sony has a few major titles on the horizon that could perk up software sales, including God of War Ragnarokcoming November 9th, and The Last of Us Part I remake arriving on September 2nd. On the hardware side, the PSVR 2 has been revealed but isn’t expected to arrive until next year.
The next quarter will be a lot more interesting for Sony’s gaming division, as PS5 sales will show if it’s been able to ramp up production. Game sales will also be notable, as the steep drop this quarter bodes ominously for the industry as a whole.
Update 7/29/2022 10:34 AM ET: The post has been updated with information that Sony has sold 21.7 million PS5s to date, not 21.4 million.
Apple’s Mac and wearables revenue stumbles as tech sector recedes
After a strong quarter earlier this year, Apple is continuing to break records. According to the company’s financial results posted today, it’s reporting a revenue record of $83 billion, an increase of 2 percent from the same period last year. Apple also said it reached an all-time high for its installed base of active devices “in every geographic segment and product category.” However, the company’s profits are down by a whole 11 percent, and while it continued to see growth in its iPhone sales, revenue from Macs and wearables dropped.
It’s worth noting that Apple’s recently announced MacBook Air with M2 chip only started shipping this month, so the numbers for Macs are likely to increase next quarter. Considering the devices the company is expected to launch in the fall, it’s also possible consumers are holding out for new products and waiting out the ongoing inflation.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a press release “This quarter’s record results speak to Apple’s constant efforts to innovate, to advance new possibilities, and to enrich the lives of our customers.” The company’s CFO Luca Maestri added “Our June quarter results continued to demonstrate our ability to manage our business effectively despite the challenging operating environment.”
During the company’s earnings call, Cook said that iPhone set a “June quarter record for both revenue and switchers to iPhone.” Sales of iPhones indeed grew from $39.6 billion to $40.7 billion year over year. In response to a question about inflation affecting consumer demand, Cook said that while the macroeconomic environment had no obvious impact on iPhones, “Mac and iPad were so gated by supply that we didn’t have enough product to test the demand.” For the wearables, home and accessories categories, though, “we did some impact there that we would attribute to the macroeconomic environment,” he said.
Cook also talked about how the company was able to welcome developers to Apple Park at WWDC this year, calling it “a reminder of the economic miracle the App Store represents.”
He added that “the iOS app economy supports more than 2.2 million jobs here in the United States and many more around the world.” Apple prevented “nearly 1.5 billion dollars in fraudulent transactions,” Cook said, and stopped “over 1.6 million risky and vulnerable apps and app updates.”
Maestri said Macs generated $7.4 billion in revenue “despite supply constraints.” The iPad install base reached a new all-time high this quarter, with more than half of subscribers being new users in this time. Meanwhile, revenue from wearables was $8.1 billion, which is down 8 percent from the same period last year “as we faced foreign exchange headwinds, different launch timing for home and accessories products and supply constraints, as well as the overall macro economic environment,” Maestri said.
Still, the company hit a new all-time record of “installed base of devices in the category.” Over two thirds of people who bought an Apple Watch during the quarter was new to the company, Maestri noted. Apple also saw strong performance in its paid subscription products, with more than 860 million paid subscriptions across the services it offers.
Meta 史上首度錄得營收下降
Meta 史上首度錄得營收下降，Reality Labs 上季度花掉了公司差不多 30 億美元。
Samsung 上季利潤增長 12%，但預計手機、PC 需求將走弱
Samsung 上季利潤增長 12%，但預計手機、PC 需求將走弱。
Rivian lays off 6 percent of its workforce as it struggles with EV production
As expected, electric pickup manufacturer Rivian is laying off 6 percent of its 14,000-strong workforce in an effort to boost production without raising more funds, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The company has a 71,000 vehicle pre-order backlog for its R1T and R1S electric pickup and SUV, but had to slash its production forecast for 2022 in half to 25,000 vehicles.
Rivian is also concerned about raising cash in the current economic environment. “Over the last six months, the world has dramatically changed with inflation reaching record highs, interest rates rapidly rising and commodity prices continuing to climb — all of which have contributed to the global capital markets tightening,” wrote chief executive RJ Scaringe in a note seen by the WSJ.
With investors like Ford and Amazon having helped it raise $12 billion, Rivian is one of the best funded EV startups out there. However, the company is at a delicate phase, trying to ramp up production enough to finally bring in revenue after building a factory in Illinois. It’s also planning to accelerate development of a more budget-oriented EV called the R2 and build a second $5 billion factory for that model in Georgia.
Another EV startup struggling with production is Faraday Future, which delayed the launch of its first EV, the FF91, yet again. The company said it needs to raise another $325 million in cash to fund operations until the end of the year.
Samsung posts 12 percent increase in profit but warns of weak mobile and PC demand
For the second quarter of 2022, Samsung has reported a consolidated revenue of KRW 77.2 trillion (US$59.4 billion), which is a record high for the quarter ending on June 30th. Samsung’s operating profit also reached KRW 14.1 trillion (US$10.8 billion) — that’s 12 percent higher from the same period a year earlier and is its best yet since 2018. As has been the case these past years, the company’s semiconductor or Device Solutions (DS) division greatly contributed to those numbers and has achieved a historical high in quarterly revenue for the second consecutive quarter.
The DS division posted KRW 28.5 trillion (US$21.9 billion) in consolidated revenue and KRW 9.98 trillion (US$7.7 billion) in operating profit in the second quarter, thanks mostly to server chip demand. However, chip demand for consumer products, such as mobile phones and PCs, was much weaker than expected “due to widening impacts of macro issues.” In fact, Samsung said its DRAM and NAND shipments came in below guidance. The company also expects demand for consumer devices to stay weak and even believes that there’s a possibility for this slump in demand to make its way to enterprise.
As you can guess based on that information, Samsung’s Mobile eXperience (MX) business was also affected by the overall decline in market demand. The company blamed “geopolitical issues and concerns over inflation on top of continued weak seasonality” for the mobile division’s decline in earnings. It also said the costs of components and logistics affected the business’ profitability and caused it to slide lower than the previous quarter’s.
The tech giant doesn’t expect smartphone sales to blow up next quarter either: Demand for new phones will likely stay similar year-on-year or show only a single-digital growth, it predicts, because of prolonged geopolitical issues and economic uncertainties. That said, it’s hoping that the launch of new foldables could pad its sales numbers in the coming months. Samsung will unveil its next-gen foldable phones at its upcoming Unpacked event on August 10th.
Meta’s revenue shrank for the first time in its history
Facebook parent company Meta has just reported its earnings for the second quarter of 2022, and it was another quarter of shrinking profits. Total revenue of $28.8 billion was only down one percent compared to Q2 one year ago, but net income dropped 36 percent to $6.7 billion. Making almost $7 billion in profit is not a bad quarter for anyone, but the size of the decline compared to a year ago is pretty significant. And, according to the Wall Street Journal, this is the first-ever drop in revenue for Meta / Facebook — so even though we’re only talking one percent, it’s still noteworthy.
Revenue from advertising and Meta’s “family of apps” was essentially flat year-over-year, and Reality Labs (home to hardware like the Meta Quest and other metaverse-related initiatives) actually grew 48 percent year-over-year to $452 million. But Reality Labs accounted for a $2.8 billion loss this quarter, a 15 percent larger loss than Q2 one year ago. At this rate, it seems likely that Reality Labs will lose Meta more than the $10 billion it cost the company in 2021. Indeed, the company said it expects Reality Labs revenue to be lower in the third quarter.
This comes the same day that the FTC announced it was seeking to block Meta’s acquisition of Supernatural VR workout app maker Within, a proposed sale that was announced last year. “Instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to buy its way to the top,” John Newman, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement.
In June, Meta said that it had 2.88 billion daily active users in its family of apps (which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger) and 3.65 billion monthly active users, both of which are up four percent compared to a year ago. Facebook-specific growth was smaller, though — average daily and monthly users only increased three percent and one percent, respectively.
Buried in today’s press release is a somewhat unusual leadership change announcement as well. As of November 1st, the company will welcome its first Chief Strategy Officer, David Wehner, who is currently Meta’s Chief Financial Officer. VP of Finance Susan Li will be promoted to the CFO position when this change goes into effect. As CSO, Wehner will “oversee the company’s strategy and corporate development,” a presumably broader scope of responsibilities compared to his current role.
On today’s call with investors, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that about 15 percent of the content that people see on Facebook and Instagram are AI-driven “recommendation” posts, and he said that he expects that to double over the next year. So if you’re already frustrated by the drastic changes that Meta is making to Facebook and Instagram, things aren’t going to go backwards any time soon.
FTC moves to block Meta’s purchase of ‘Supernatural’ VR workout app maker Within
The Federal Trade Commission has filed an antitrust suit against Meta in a bid to block it from buying Within Unlimited, the maker of the virtual reality workout app Supernatural. The agency accused the company and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg of “planning to expand Meta’s virtual reality empire with this attempt to illegally acquire a dedicated fitness app that proves the value of virtual reality to users.”
The FTC claimed that Meta is “already a key player” at every level of the VR ecosystem. It said the company has the top-selling VR device (Meta Quest 2), a leading VR app store, “seven of the most successful developers and one of the best-selling apps of all time.” The latter is likely referring to Beat Saber. Meta bought the maker of that rhythm game, Beat Games, in 2019.
“Instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to buy its way to the top,” John Newman, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. “Meta already owns a best-selling virtual reality fitness app and it had the capabilities to compete even more closely with Within’s popular Supernatural app. But Meta chose to buy market position instead of earning it on the merits. This is an illegal acquisition and we will pursue all appropriate relief.”
Meta announced its plan to buy Within last October. It was reported in December that the FTC was looking into the $400 million deal. Meta, of course, got into the VR market in the first place when it bought Oculus in 2014.
The FTC argues in the complaint that Meta has the resources and “reasonable probability” of entering the VR fitness market by building its own app. That approach, the agency claims, would “increase consumer choice, increase innovation, spur additional competition to attract the best employees, and yield other competitive benefits.” Instead, if it were to buy Within, the FTC claims Meta would limit “future innovation and competitive rivalry” and says “that lessening of competition violates the antitrust laws.”
“The FTC’s case is based on ideology and speculation, not evidence. The idea that this acquisition would lead to anticompetitive outcomes in a dynamic space with as much entry and growth as online and connected fitness is simply not credible,” a Meta spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. “By attacking this deal in a 3-2 vote, the FTC is sending a chilling message to anyone who wishes to innovate in VR. We are confident that our acquisition of Within will be good for people, developers and the VR space.”
The move will come as another blow to Meta’s aim to become the leading metaverse player. The company has plowed billions into the effort, though in recent months it has dialed back some of its ambitions by cutting costs and reportedly shelving plans for some devices that were supposed to hook into its metaverse. This week, the company announced that it will increase the price of a Meta Quest 2 headset by $100 as of August 1st. News of the FTC’s move to block the Within acquisition comes on the same day that Meta will report its earnings for the second quarter of 2022.
Update 7/27 7:41PM ET: Meta has since published a blog post called “The FTC’s Attempt to Block Meta’s Acquisition of Within Is Wrong on the Facts and the Law.” You can probably guess the company’s stance on the matter from that title alone.