Sony Fights to Catch Up with Apple iPad

Despite being significantly behind, Sony has stated that they plan on making a competitor top the rival the Apple iPad.  Without giving anything away regarding the device, Sony chief financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda admitted, "Sony is very much interested in this segment of the market and we have [the] necessary technology."

This isn't the first time Sony has been criticized for losing the technology edge in key consumer devices. The Electronics company lost leads in both game consoles and the MP3 music player to the likes of Nintendo Wii and the Apple iPod. 

After a strong Christmas quarter, Sony is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.  They recently reported it's first quarterly profit in more then a year.  With exception to the Sony Ericsson mobile phone, every division turned profit at the operating level. Sony manufacturing sites will dwindle down from 57 in 2009 to 45 by May of 2010.  With job cuts, factory closures, and internal restructuring, Sony expects to make a full-year operating profit of Y140bn.  Sony pictures sales were up 16% due to the huge success of Michael Jackson's This Is It film.