In an interview with The Nikkei newspaper (http://tinyurl.com/o5vybsm), Sony CFO Kenichiro Yoshida said that the company plans to rethink its smartphone strategy. While the recent finance results (see elsewhere in this issue) showed poor smartphone sales, Yoshida said that it would stick with the business and announce specific reforms in February.
Sales this fiscal year will be about 41 million units, 2 million lower than previously forecast. Yoshida said that Sony is “struggling” in parts of Southeast Asia and China. However, the Xperia Z3 is selling well in Japan, the USA and Europe.
In recent weeks we have heard that Sony would withdraw some low-cost models from emerging markets (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 42). Yoshida confirmed the move, telling The Nikkei, “We offer 10 smartphone models in China, but will stop development of China-exclusive models by the end of this fiscal year. We will also re-examine sales regions and how we sell products”.
