Sony ships 8.7 million smartphones in quarter ended December 2012

Sony has released its latest quarterly statement for the three months to December 2012. The company reported sales of Y1,948 billion and operating income of Y46.4 billion for the group as a whole. On the smartphone side of things, Sony shipped 8.7 million handsets compared to 8.8 million in the prior quarter and maintained full year shipment guidance of 34 million handsets.

The Mobile Communications division was one of the few areas not to see shipments downgraded for the full year. Most other parts of the business saw downgrades, with the PSP/PS Vita seeing a heavy 30% downgrade from 10m to 7m forecast for the full year. Sony Mobile has done relatively well on a year-on-year view with quarterly shipments up by circa 45% over the prior year and revenues of $1.9bn, up by around 20% on the prior year.

This sales have been achieved despite the lukewarm reception of the 2012 phones as well as what I might call confusion with regard to phone versions launched by Sony. I am not sure what was the Sony flagship phone for the year 2012, given that Sony launched more batter phones after announcing the Xperia S and even the mid-range Xperia T had better features than the Xperia S. Some phones such as the Xperia V seem to be forgotten about and it cannot be found in many markets around the world. Many of the other phones that launched after the flagship are more expensive than Xperia S and other competing brands like Samsung and HTC which are mostly quad cores.

In order for Sony to achieve the 25 million sales of Smartphones, the company will have to stay lean and improve on its sales services. By staying lean just as we anticipated early last year, there will not be confusion in the market by the consumers not knowing what to purchase. It is important for Sony to note that they cannot afford to impress everyone with equal attention. The wide range of Smartphones has made it difficult for the company to do timely updates of the OS and it always sites the custom UI and wide range of phones as to why it takes as along as a year and months to get an Android update. Why should my Xperia S which is a flagship come after entry levels when it comes to updates?

Sony makes some of the best mobile accessories and that is it. My biggest concern is why have some fancy technology that you never capitalize on in your sales? A good example is the Xperia smart tags which were announced last year but they never got any major promotion beyond Sony’s website.  I was shocked to realize that service providers especially in Kenya were reluctant to have the accessories bundled with the phones with an assumption that the technology was alien. Simply put, Sony will have to do more to attract new buyers including bundling the flagships with their impressive accessories such as the smart watch, NFC speakers etc. and by doing so, they will be able to create awareness of the accessories as well as improve the brand’s visibility.

Judging by the reception of the Xperia Z, there is no doubt that the company is going to meet its sales target and maybe surpass it. Xperia Z is quit a looker and is up-to-date in all aspects pertaining technology. Sony seems to be committed in seeing its second generation Sony Xperia succeed by  giving the phone the shortest launch in different markets  as compared to the likes of Xperia V which took as long as six months to start retailing in some markets.

MWC is around the corner and from the look of things; Sony might be announcing their mid-range phone with a bigger pointer to their next console, music unlimited and maybe an above 13 mega pixel camera. I look forward to the launching of a UI that could as well be a Touch Wiz killer. What is your view?

This brand has the most loyal fan base that is yet to be tapped into...