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It’s no secret that Sony has been seeing huge losses year-on-year despite good performance in sales from certain segments of its business, but now it seems enough is enough. Sony has announced that it will be significantly reducing its mobile device and TV efforts in order to focus more heavily on its best performing branch – the PlayStation 4 – in a bid to turn a profit.
The company said in a statement that it intends to cut costs by reducing its mobile device line-up and it’s prepared to do to keep things in the black even if overall sales dip. As well as the PS4 console, Sony will keep up its camera sensor efforts. While Sony will still produce phones, tablets, and TVs, these will apparently not be a primary focus of the company. Sony will reveal more about its mobile division plans by the end of March.
It’s an interesting move, however, as the company has just launched two new high-end smartphones (Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact) and a high-end tablet (Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact) under the Xperia brand. Meanwhile, rumours say it has even more mobile products in development for 2015; including at least one new tablet and as many as three new smartphones, one of which is thought to be a reboot of the largely unsuccessful Xperia Z Ultra phablet.
Shedding costs wherever possible, Reuters reports having heard that Sony will also not renew its FIFA sponsorship deal in 2015.
The strategy change is part of a new three-year business plan in which the company is “not aiming for size or market share but better profits,” according to Sony’s new mobile chief Hiroki Totoki. In this time frame Sony intends to boost videogame sales by as much as 25%, with a target of 1.6 trillion Yen (£8.68 billion). The company will also utilise “personalised TV, video and music distribution services,” to boost revenue, according to Reuters.
Sales from the devices division, which also includes the company’s camera sensor business, can be boosted by as much as 70% according to Sony’s estimates with a target of 1.5 trillion Yen. This is an area where Sony can be much more confident as it already sells plenty of camera sensors to other manufacturers, including Apple. In a separate statement earlier this month, Sony also revealed it intends to increase its film and TV production revenues by as much as a third during the same three-year period – the news comes alongside reports that Sony is pulling out of a second Steve Jobs biopic.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however, as Sony’s PS4 console performance continues to go from strength-to-strength. Microsoft’s Xbox One boss Phil Spencer has congratulated Sony on its successful PlayStation 4 launch and sales performance on the anniversary of both consoles.
Writing on Twitter, Spencer said, “This 1st year has been incredible. Great launch for 2 consoles, exciting competition & great games. Thanks for all the support & feedback.”
“Those Sony peeps had a great first year,” he added.
11:31, 25 Nov 2014
by pbriden via Featured Articles
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