A year ago, Sony Corporation predicted that for the 2018 fiscal year ended last March, it will sell 10 million Xperia smartphones. A few months later, it lowered its forecast to 9 million, and then to 7 million. In January, the Japanese electronics giant again cut the expected figure - this time to 6,5 million, which was eventually reflected in its annual financial report, which it published the other day.
Compared to 2017, the reduction in supplies amounted to 51,85%, but this result looks even more dramatic if the annual reporting period is divided into quarters. The first quarter of 2019 was especially unsuccessful in terms of sales of Xperia smartphones in quantitative terms, when Sony was able to ship only 1,1 million units. The company has not yet shown the worst quarterly indicator, and yet only five years ago, at the end of 2014, it beat its own records, managing to ship almost 12 million smartphones in three months.
Even the debut of the flagship model did not save the situation which entered the market in October 2018. Together with it, Sony was only able to raise the supply of smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2018 by 0,2 million - from 1,6 to 1,8 million. Such poor results led to the fact that the corporation's mobile division lost 97 billion yen ($869 million). Sony hopes to reduce losses by reducing operating costs by 50%, which it expects to achieve by layoffs of thousands of employees and other measures.
However, the company does not expect a quick recovery of its mobile business. According to its own forecasts, for the 2019 financial year, it sells only 5 million smartphones, that is, another 1,5 million less. And the Sony Mobile division can become profitable no earlier than March 2021.
Source: 3dnews.ru