DigiTimes has reported that Sony Mobile has reportedly cut down its smartphone business personnel by a staggering 15%, due to poor performance of its high-end models in US, Europe and low-end models in emerging markets.
Sony, which has been struggling to keep itself within the top 10 largest smartphone vendors’ list, has realized that its entry and mid level smartphone business is not paying it dividends, and has decided to shut down certain new models, which were presently in their developmental stage.
Consequently, Sony Mobile has downwardly adjusted its target smartphone shipments for fiscal year 2014 from 50 million units to 43 million units, which is an astounding 7 million units decrease, considering the fact that we are talking about a big name smartphone vendor.
Recent fresh launches by Samsung and obviously Apple (which just sold 10 million units in 3 days), have badly hurt the Taiwanese smartphone vendor in U.S. and European markets. Similarly, an influx of numerous new, and aggressively priced Chinese smartphones like Xiaomi, have hurt Sony in the emerging markets.
Moreover, Sony’s combined shipments are almost equal to the number of new iPhones, which Apple sold in 3 days. As for the rankings, if Sony’s future shipments remain at the present 10 million value, Sony will see itself getting ousted from the Top 10 list.
