{"id":132379,"date":"2015-07-08T05:30:57","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T05:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=132379"},"modified":"2015-07-07T16:13:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T16:13:00","slug":"sonys-smartphone-ambitions-are-not-dead-sony-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=132379","title":{"rendered":"Sony’s smartphone ambitions are not dead – President"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following speculation that Sony is looking to close its mobile division or sell it on to another company, Sony Mobile\u2019s President Hiroki Totoki has stated that \u201cwe [Sony] will never ever sell or exit from the current mobile business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to Arabian Business, Totoki covered in broad strokes the changes he as implemented since taking on the role in October 2014. This includes a target to reduce costs by thirty percent at the end of 2016, and to reduce the headcount by twenty percent.<\/p>\n

It also means dealing with comments from Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai that he would not rule out considering an exit strategy for the smartphone division, \u201c[Sony] would no longer pursue sales growth in areas such as smartphones\u2026\u201c, and the various rounds of layoffs that continued recently with the loss of 1000 R&D jobs.<\/p>\n

The signals coming out of Sony regarding its mobile and smartphone division have been muddled, and that has damaged confidence in the smartphone line-up. The Xperia handsets are some of the best specced Android handsets on the market, but the Japanese company has never been able to maximise the return on the hardware.<\/p>\n

The flagship Xperia handsets have the specifications, design, and power, to compete and win in a head-to-head battle against any other Android handset, and I\u2019d argue that the \u2018Z\u2019 handsets are the equal of the Apple\u2019s iPhone handsets.<\/p>\n

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Instead Sony moved the pricing point of the handset into the mid-range. This reduced the potential profits of the handsets, and by pricing the handset lower than the iPhone it walked away from being able to push a campaign built around desirability and a luxury lifestyle angle. There\u2019s nothing that says the iPhone has to be the most expensive handset and the final word in smartphone style. Sony, more than any other current smartphone manufacturer, was best placed to disrupt that.<\/p>\n

Sony\u2019s issues with previous Xperia handsets has also been poor communication and marketing. The current perception of Sony\u2019s lack of desire to remain in the smartphone market is a result of poor communication and mixed signals coming from the company over the last six months. And the marketing around the current flagship is sporadic at best, with an insistence on different product names for the same flagship device in different regions.<\/p>\n

Customers see their smartphones as an investment over the life of a contract. With these typically stretching out to two years, they want a manufacturer to be as committed to a platform as they will be. Sony\u2019s public commitment has weakened, and part of Totoki\u2019s remit will be to re-engage the public with the brand and to communicate the passion Sony has for the product range..<\/p>\n

That remit will also need to reach inside Sony so that there is a consistent message from everyone on the desire for a smartphone program.<\/p>\n

More than that Totoki is going to have to decide what sort of smartphone company Sony wants to be. The mid-range of the market is a brutal and unforgiving place to be . The choice is to go high-end or low-end. With the talk of restructuring, reducing costs, and minimising the portfolio to support \u2018the internet of things\u2019, it does feel like the high-volume low-price market is Sony\u2019s target.<\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s the wrong choice. Sony\u2019s equipment, design, and specifications, has always appealed to the high-end market. It would be a more expensive path, but establishing Sony at the high end of the market with high margins on lower volumes should play to Sony\u2019s perceived strengths.<\/p>\n

Whatever the decision, Totoki needs to communicate it clearly, widely, and quickly.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Forbes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following speculation that Sony is looking to close its mobile division or sell it on to another company, Sony Mobile\u2019s President Hiroki Totoki has stated that \u201cwe [Sony] will never ever sell or exit from the current mobile business.\u201d Speaking to Arabian Business, Totoki covered in broad strokes the changes he as implemented since taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":132382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-132379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-akwasi-osei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/132382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}