Sony Mobile – The last samurai

Sony Mobile is nothing if not brave.

• Sony Mobile has ambitious plans for 2013 but now Sony Mobile is looking to push those even further in 2014.
• Sony is currently expecting to ship 42m devices (4.4% market share) in 2013, which even I think may be a stretch.
• I am forecasting a much more conservative 32m or 3.3% market share.
• Not content with that, Sony Mobile is planning expanding on that to ship 65m units (6.0% market share) in 2014.
• Sony has launched some good devices in its Xperia series but they just seem to get lost in the noise and fanfare that is Apple and Samsung.
• Furthermore, Sony does not have the deep pockets of Microsoft which makes it a minnow in the marketing noise that is smartphones today.
• 6.0% market share does not seem to be asking a lot but the market is brutally competitive and Android handset makers are really struggling with differentiation.
• Sony Mobile has managed some differentiation on its look and feel and its waterproof devices have been well received, but I am not convinced that they have really sold in volumes or that Sony Mobile has made good margins on them.
• Market share gain could come from a re-expansion into emerging markets but when the company last tried that, it got badly burned and withdrew.
• This would be an assault based on cheap Android which is a strategy that is fraught with risk.
• At those low price points one finds Samsung flexing its muscles as well as the multitude ranks of Indian and Chinese handset makers.
• Making cheap Android devices is very easy and consequently unless one has the brand and scale of Samsung, it is a license to lose money.
• The main problem for Sony is essentially differentiation and hardware differentiation no longer counts for much.
• At the high end Sony Mobile needs to make the most of the other assets that lie within the Sony group.
• Unfortunately, the new management does not seem to have been able to break down the internal silos that have existed for so many years.
• Hence, I worry that much will be promised but little delivered that will really delight users.
• Sony should be on my list of contenders to create a mobile ecosystem combining Playstation, movies, music and so on but very little has been delivered to date.
• That being said, Sony remains the only Japanese handset maker that has any chance of surviving but there remains a lot to do to make that dream happen.