It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Sony‘s smartphone business has been in trouble for some time now. Despite releasing by far their best smartphones to date, the Xperia Z5 line has failed to inject the required life into Sony’s brand in the market place. The idea of splitting off the smartphone part of the business from the rest of Sony isn’t a foreign idea – after all, VAIO, Sony’s laptop division was jettisoned not too long ago. According to comments by Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai, it would appear that the decision to do this may be made depending on Sony Mobile’s performance in 2016.
“We will continue with the business as long as we are on track with the scenario of breaking even next year onwards. Otherwise, we haven’t eliminated the consideration of alternative options,” says Hirai.
It almost sounds depressing to hear that a smartphone manufacturer would be happy with breaking even, but that’s the kind of market that exists at the moment. Sony predicted earlier this year that they would sell 38 million smartphones in 2015, down 1.2 million from 2014 – whether the Japanese giant is on track to meet this target remains to be seen, but after removing low-end devices from their repertoire, achieving this goal this year, and next, would seem like a pipe dream at best.
What do you think about Sony’s smartphone business potentially being split off? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Reuters via TalkAndroid
