In case you haven’t heard, Sony is in a little bit of strife. After having a resoundingly successful 2013, Sony’s financial success has taken a turn for the worse, recently posting a 180 billion year “impairment” – their words, not ours – due to poor performance by its Xperia devices, particularly the smartphones. As a result, Sony has had to let go about 1,000 employees to help its situation and the changes haven’t stopped there. According to sources in Taiwan, Sony will focus on high-end smartphones and essentially downplay its mid to low-end offerings to try and recover some of its losses.
Sony had been well positioned to consolidate its position in the top 10 of all smartphone manufacturers, however its latest performance could eventually see it drop out the tail end of those 10. Its poor performance has been blamed on a recent surge in Chinese manufacturer activity and an inability to get a foothold in the U.S. market, something which should not be unfamiliar to our American readers. This is a very similar downturn to what happened with HTC not too long ago after it tried to dip its fingers into too many pies. HTC has since recovered much of its former glory – Sony looks to have taken the first steps that HTC took after it reported huge losses and will take some time to properly recover, possibly when it is time for the Xperia Z4 to launch.
What do you think about Sony’s new strategy of just focusing on high-end smartphones? Let us know your opinion.
Source: Sony, DigiTimes via engadget, Phone Arena
