Sony to swing to ¥10-30 billion profit

Sony is to post an operating profit of between 10 and 30 billion yen for the first quarter of its 2010 financial year.

That's according to Japanese business paper Nikkei, translated by Andriasang which suggests that the PlayStation business and mobile sectors were both profitable for the company, along with strong sales of SLR cameras and LCD televisions in Japan and in foreign markets.

For the same periods last year Sony recorded an operating loss of ¥25.7 billion, with the PlayStation department accounting for a loss of ¥39.7 billion due to a decline in profitability of the games and Vaio businesses.

During the first quarter of last year, sales of PlayStation 3 hardware was down from 1.6 million units to 1.1 million, and PSP unit sales down from 3.7 million to 1.3 million.

Sony's first quarter financial results will be released this Thursday, July 29.