Sony smartphone division in serious trouble?

[holden j caufield]

I've not seen a company with worse support for their products than sony. I think any issue I've had the community and luckily google and XDA has solved most of the issues sony couldn't fix themselves.

 

[Deeko]

I love my Z1 Compact. It's a shame.

 

[Dari]

SONY says they will form a wholly-owned subsidiary called SONY Electronics and people say SONY is abandoning consumer electronics. SONY says they will focus on profit and people say they will abandon smartphones. Just like there's a Samsung Electronics, a SONY electronics is a subsidiary of SONY, nothing more. Remember, the company is also involved in chemicals, banking, insurance, etc... Forming these subsidiaries allows resources and money to be allocated and used more efficiently. Hopefully, they're successful.

 

[DefDC]

It shouldn't be rocket science for them to take a reasonable share of the US smartphone market. The concept should be a pretty easy for them since they handle so many facets of the process already. They could grab the attention of the gaming and high end sector by making a phone with:

Large quality screen (or variable to keep the small pockets group happy too!)
SD slot
Removable battery
Water/shockproof standard
slide out controller (I just bought an older xperia play for $30. It's a fun device!)
Stock android. (as close as possible)
Give away PS1 games free to download
no proprietary cards, cables, or other Sony bullshit.
Reasonable cost
Free or heavy discounts for streaming Sony movies/classics
Available on all carriers. (I loathe AT&T, but I'd almost consider switching from Verizon to have access to all phones)

Most consumers won't give a crap about most of these things, but if they can get the gamers and enthusiasts, it'll create a great buzz. It would certainly open the door for attention to non-gaming models. Best of all, this is almost all existing resources and hardware, and not much custom software, which the consumer DOESN'T WANT ANYWAY.

They should be able to use their brand and resources as a weapon. It could create a great amount of goodwill. Just stop with the awful formats and trying to pull every dollar out of a customer with "me too, but worse" products and services.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Let's not pretend Sony has no fault in this, it took an awful long time for them to finally stop using atrocious displays in phones, including flagships no less. While the Xperia SP was amazing from a pure specs/price perspective in Asia when it was still available, it was a lagfest in real-world use compared to a Moto G despite a much better SoC and the same amount of 1GB RAM...After which their budget models ended up in the same horrid specs/price category like Samsung did.

 

[thilanliyan]

I would have bought a Sony phone before if the LCDs they were using weren't crap. I think they're better now but they should have done much better a long time ago.

 

[dawheat]

That seems likely:



http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/18/8061703/sony-spin-off-audio-and-video-business

The fact that they are openly considering it basically means it is a done deal probably. And it is easy to see why:

The writing is on the wall.

Agree, if you're going to spin off an electronics division, it'd make sense to drop the huge anchor. Keep the profitable divisions, sell off the non.

I doubt a sell off would let the buyer keep the Sony name. Otherwise might be a good pickup for a Chinese OEM to use to break into the high end.

 

[GTRagnarok]

Does Sony advertise their phones in the US at all? I don't remember ever seeing a commercial for one.

 

[Strk]

Does Sony advertise their phones in the US at all? I don't remember ever seeing a commercial for one.

I've never seen one and I don't really remember them getting much in the way of carrier wins since before smartphones took off. I think only Verizon and T-mobile are the only ones with the Z3 and even then it isn't really advertised.

 

[CptObvious]

I dont think Sony is getting out of electronics altogether. Mobile was a huge drag on their earnings and is an obvious candidate to be axed. "Audio and video" is more specific than it implies - according to their financials its Blu-ray Disc players and recorders, home audio, headphones and memory-based portable audio devices. By spinning this section off (which is mostly low-margin stuff now anyway) its probably next on the chopping block. I think they will eventually get out of TVs as well.

However other electronics areas like Playstations and the imaging sensor business (selling all those camera sensors in iPhones) are very profitable and I would be shocked if they did anything there. Theyre also doing relatively well in the camera market with the Alpha mirrorless line and the RX fixed lens line (I say "relatively" because the camera market as a whole is doing terribly). They probably need to think about giving up the DLST/A-mount side of the business though.

 

[Dari]

I dont think Sony is getting out of electronics altogether. Mobile was a huge drag on their earnings and is an obvious candidate to be axed. "Audio and video" is more specific than it implies - according to their financials its Blu-ray Disc players and recorders, home audio, headphones and memory-based portable audio devices. By spinning this section off (which is mostly low-margin stuff now anyway) its probably next on the chopping block. I think they will eventually get out of TVs as well.

However other electronics areas like Playstations and the imaging sensor business (selling all those camera sensors in iPhones) are very profitable and I would be shocked if they did anything there. Theyre also doing relatively well in the camera market with the Alpha mirrorless line and the RX fixed lens line (I say "relatively" because the camera market as a whole is doing terribly). They probably need to think about giving up the DLST/A-mount side of the business though.

Mobile was only a drag because they tried to make a phone for damn near EVERYBODY under the sun. At one time SONY was literally competing with Samsung as to who could make the most smartphones. It backfired spectacularly. They stopped that nonsense so I think mobile will be fine. Just keep it to a few premiums and advertise the phones. Even a monkey could do this.