With a recent resurgence in mobile, Sony has re-emerged as a true contender for your smartphone dollars. While they don’t plan on threatening Samsung for dominance any time soon — if ever — they do want a larger slice of the pie.
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Sony Mobile’s Sales and Marketing chief Dennis van Schie noted that Sony wanted to be number three in regard to worldwide Android sales. “If we are going for the No. 3, it is 20% of the smartphone market by value.” said van Schie, and noted their current presence hovers around 7%.
In splitting from Sony-Ericsson, van Schie noted that a world of opportunity opened up. He pointed to their presence in India, which was very minimal until the split:
Where we leverage—and this is a big change from the past—the sales and marketing infrastructure of Sony. For example, in India. I was responsible for product development on the technological side at Sony Ericsson. We had a team of 25, 30 people, and to get to the mom-and-pop stores out there in a massive, complex and vast country like India is very risky.
Sony Electronics have 650 people on the ground. Over 10 years they have built this network for selling TVs, PlayStation, cameras. Now, when we merged … we suddenly see a massive growth in India.
There was also the issue of technology and access to R&D their parent company was involved in. In a nutshell, Sony-Ericsson was treated the same as any other manufacturer, not having access to Sony’s camera or screen technology until the competition. Now that Sony Mobile is safely tucked into the parent company Sony, both technology and distribution channels have opened up.
As for where Sony Mobile intends to sell, it’s at their familiar premium designation. According to von Schie, they’ll focus on the $400-and-up price point, nearly dashing hopes of a Sony Nexus device. The marketing lead went on to say that “That is where the value is, that is where the money is”, and pointed to that sector as where Sony was most comfortable.
too bad for the screen… but they are getting there… im going Note3 soon instead
With the right marketing lg has a better shot at #3
Agree with you too some extend.But Sony has a good chance in developing countries as compared to Lg.Sony mobiles at a low price gives much more features as compared to Lg.
It would be a great start if I could actually buy the Z1 in the US market.
Maybe if HTC or Motorola croak…
They are better than samsung while need just a better screen