Sony is rethinking its approach on the smartphone market owing to disappointing sales. The company is planning to cut down the smartphone lineup by ending the development of new smartphones in China and is reducing the number of Xperia models as it struggles to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung.
Sony will streamline its product portfolio and mentions that by reducing the number of products it will be able to improve the “resource allocation per product”. Along with the smartphone, the company will also slash it TV line-up due to poor sales. Sony will now focus its resources to their highly profitable video game and image sensor businesses. The company said that sales in the videogame business, which includes PlayStation consoles and network services, would grow to ¥1.4 trillion ($12 billion) to ¥1.6 trillion in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018, up from ¥1.29 trillion in the current fiscal year.
“We’re not aiming for size or market share but better profits,” claimed Hiroki Totoki, the new chief of Sony’s mobile division. As a result, sales are expected to go 30% down for the upcoming three-year period, but as per Sony, this might lead to an increase of its sales by 70% and raise as much as a 1.5 trillion yen (around $12.6 billion) in pure profit.
Sony is also looking to increase sales in its gaming division by 25%, which also covers personalized TV, video and music distribution services. The company also revealed a three-year electronic business plan in which they are aiming to boost the sales of its image sensor business by as much as 70%. Their image sensors can already be found in Apple and countless Chinese-made devices.
In addition to Playstation hardware, Sony is also heavily invested in its new Playstation Vue Internet TV service, which launched in Beta earlier this month, and is expected to go commercial in 2015.