Sony to no longer pursue sales growth in smartphone, TV business

While Sony surprised even themselves with a recent financial report that showed they actually earned a profit, the shrinking sales in both their smartphone and TV business has led CEO Kazuo Hirai to almost admit defeat in those two sectors. He has recently said the company will no longer pursue sales growth in those areas and will instead focus on products that are actually bringing them profit, which includes the Playstation and camera sensors for mobile devices.

Hirai outlined his plans for the company for the next 3 years, and it looks like the smartphone and TV sectors may as well throw in the towel, because they won’t figure into those plans. The CEO believes that if they want to be able to reach their goal of increasing profit by 25%, they would need to focus on those areas that have been helping them reach targets, and probably sell or spin-off those that have been hindering further growth. This is what they did with the their VAIO computing range, and now the company helming it has even released new products.

So in order to reach their $4.2 billion operating profit for the 2017/2018 financial year, Sony will be looking at their gaming console business, which of course has been an area they have a heavy footprint in, despite competition from Microsoft, Nintendo, and the likes. Another area of profit would be camera sensors for both stand-alone cameras, but also for mobile devices.

As to what will happen with their other businesses, that is still up for a lengthy discussion. Hirai has said he cannot “rule out considering an exit strategy” for these two sectors. Meanwhile, to cut down on costs in developing and maintaining some products, Sony has instead entered into partnerships. Sony Music Unlimited has been replaced with a partnership with Spotify, while Sony Online Entertainment has been sold to an investment fund. These moves also show the company’s priority when it comes to which areas they would still want to develop.

VIA: SlashGear