Things just seem to be going from bad to worse for Sony's profits. Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer had originally set the 5 percent margin target in 2005 for the financial year to March 2008 but the company narrowly missed it, and its plans for recovery have since been waylaid by the economic slow down.

This profit margin forecast has now been pushed back to March 2013. The maker of Bravia TVs and PlayStation game consoles said it would deliver on its promise to make its LCD TV and game operations profitable, launch 3D TVs and make a belated entry into lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.

Sony planned to cut 330 billion yen in costs this fiscal year, and has already carried out about 80 percent of the targetted reduction in the first half through September. Howard Stringer commented:

"We are better, we are leaner, we are faster. We have done some of the really difficult things, but the company still needs to be more efficient. We are not satisfied."

Sony's fortunes do however, seem to be changing for their PlayStation business. Due to recent price cuts, and exclusive games, the PlayStation 3 was the best selling console in North America in September, and beat the rival Xbox 360 in October as well. Going in to the holiday season, it seems that the PlayStation 3 is now a bigger competitor than it ever was before!