October 25, 2007 | posted by Michael Baxter in IABN |

Computer games are, as you know, for boys. By boys, of course, we include males in their 20s, or even older; but ask any woman - the female of the species is far too sensible to waste her time on computer games. At least that has been the long-held wisdom. But if that’s true, explain this. According to Nintendo, 51 per cent of all users of its Wii are female. The Nintendo DS is even more popular with females, who make up 53 per cent of its user total.

Perhaps Nintendo really have found the magic formula - and it’s all down to innovation and a willingness to think outside the box.

Yesterday, the games console company announced its latest results. Half-yearly operating profit was Y188.8bn, which is £810 million, from just Y67 billion last year. So that’s a near trebling in profits in 12 months.

The company is now the third-largest firm in Japan by market capitalisation - with only Toyota and the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group bigger. And right now, Sony is eating dust in Nintendo’s wake.

And yet, it is not all bad news at Sony. In its latest quarter, profits at Sony soared to 73.72 billion yen ($646.7 million, from 1.68 billion yen in the same quarter a year ago.

Moving forward, it expects to make a profit of 330 billion yen this year - that’s $2.98 billion, compared to Nintendo’s projections of 420 billion yen.

And yet, while Nintendo boasts the higher valuation and profits, Sony enjoys much greater turnover. In the quarter just gone, sales hit 2.083 trillion yen, whereas Nintendo is forecasting sales of just 1.55 trillion yen for the entire year.

Not only is Nintendo’s Wii outselling the PlayStation 3, Nintendo enjoys much higher margins on its product too.

But Sony is not just a games company. And in the latest quarter, it was good news from sales of LCD TVs and digital cameras that helped boost the bottom line. But then again, both these markets are becoming very competitive - we have said before that many expect a market crash in consumer electronics soon - as manufacturers keep trying to upgrade us from the previous generation of hardware, but in the process seem to be becoming ever more-reliant on early adopters.

If you like this article, why not register for our daily newsletter? Or if you already receive the newsletter, then start spreading the news and tell your friends and colleagues. To register visit this link

Copyright #169; 1996-2007 Find.co.uk Limited. All rights reserved