Sony Xperia Comeback | Sony's Smartphone Series is Coming Back

The smartphone industry has changed a lot in a few years. Before the arrival of Chinese Smartphones in the market, you get to see phones from the brands like LG, HTC, Sony, BlackBerry. Since when the Chinese companies have made their monopoly of offering good specifications at a cheaper price after many companies have disappeared from the scene. Meanwhile, if we talk about LG they have just wrapped off their smartphone business completely, and HTC also disappeared from the scene as well, if we talk about Nokia, at once they used to be on the top, but after that, they almost disappeared from the market, and now they can be seen again in the form of HMT Global. But one such company was there which used to make a little bit premium smartphones, and we have always seen them coming up with new technology, but still, after this much popularity and loyal fanbase, they have almost completely disappeared from the Indian and the Global market. So we are talking about Sony smartphones. We are seeing Sony making phones since the period when Sony used to make Ericsson phones, those were of good quality as well. When the period of android phones has arrived, then we have seen Sony making Xperia lineup phones, and Sony always used come up with some unique features with their phones. Sony had brought the first phone with a 4K display on it. As because Sony was a Japanese company, that's why we get to see IP ratings in the majority of their phones. The Mobile division of Sony was incurring losses for the last 5 years, but now after long 5 years Sony's mobile division is in profit and it seems that Sony is making a comeback in the market. Let's know-how.

So if we mention Sony mobiles, then Sony used to make great mobiles at a period of time. When the monopoly of Chinese companies arrived on the scene, LG and Sony were working very similarly and doing their work outside the league. Sony was working on their 4K display phone, and many other phones also brought in by Sony, they have also brought phones with the display size of 21:9 ratio, and on the other hand, LG was trying different concepts on the phones, where we got to see much different innovative technology like they had introduced LG Wing. But these LG phones were concept phones and everyone doesn't need to buy these phones. But Sony's story was different, Sony had tried to make comeback with the Xperia Series, they had also made phones like Xperia 5, but after sometimes Sony had launched few interesting phones like Xperia 1 Series. The Latest phone of the Xperia 1 series is Xperia 1 Mark 3, and which is the only phone in the market with a 21:9 4K HDR OLED display.

Basically, the main business of Sony is not smartphones, making smartphones is the side business of Sony. Sony is popular for making electronic appliances like TV, Camera, PlayStation, etc, So Sony is popular for making these things. So with the sale of other products, Sony had tried to cover their losses on making smartphones, and they have kept the Sony Mobiles alive with the help of their other main products. Now Sony has found a niche in the Smartphone market, where they can stay in profit by making fewer phones. That means Sony doesn't need to make phones and sell too many phones to run their phone business, unlike Xiaomi, and BBK group, as they completely rely on the sale of their phones, as their main business is making phones. So if their main business shuts down then they can do anything else. On the other hand, Sony has an advantage that Sony is making a profit from other business and investing it in their phone business and they can revive it. 

The Mobile division of Sony currently doesn't exist in India, but it exists in the European market, and they are doing very well. Sony has shipped 39 million phones in 2014, whereas in 2020 they have shipped 2.9 million. Though the number is not that big, Sony is not trying to make phones in large numbers whereas they are thinking to make phones for a specific audience and sell phones to that particular audience only. So this strategy worked for Sony. Sony had worked more on its strength and bounced back. For example, Sony's XZ series and Z series phones were appreciated because of their IP rating and for the audio-related features which are offered with them, and Sony worked on their strength and put all of that in their phones, and started making phones for their loyal fans, and the creative professionals. Another important thing is that the phones that you see now like Latest Xperia, 1 mark 3, so the names are a little bit weird, and earlier what used to happen is the naming scheme was different and they used to introduce many phones, which become the reason of Sony's downfall. Now the advantage is the phones which Sony is introducing comes with some unique features which specifically does not available in any other phone, which makes the phones special. Like Sony is offering a 21:9 4k OLED display, you also get stereo speakers with front-firing and a headphone jack with Snapdragon 888 processor. In Sony Xperia you get to see many camera-related features, you'll get to see the switchable focal length in zoom. The features that are there in the camera of Sony phones, similar features are usually available in the expensive Alpha series cameras of Sony. The connectivity has also been nicely done with their cameras.

Basically, Sony is not making phones like other companies. Other companies are making a phone for targeting mass audiences, meanwhile, Sony is targetting for their loyal fans and creative professionals so that when the users buy the phone they get to such features which other companies aren't providing. So Sony has shined in this small segment, by making lesser phones but selling them at a higher price, and other companies are not entering the market as they are the only company who are providing such unique features. So this is advantageous for Sony. Sony is the only company to give Stock android with Snapdragon 888 in the market. Sony has tried to build their own ecosystem, they have also made the PlayStation's dual shock 4 controllers compatible with their phones, you can use it as a viewfinder in Sony's Cameras. So basically Sony had tried to sell their phones to their existing customers those who already had been using a Sony camera, or any other different product, and they did very well on that particular segment. Sony did made comeback but not as everyone was expecting like they'll launch a high-end phone at a cheaper price, rather they have made a premium phone, and made such a phone that you won't find similar features in any other phone. Well, this strategy worked very well in the European market, as the people of Europe have the purchasing power, and they can spend more on mobile phones. That's why Sony is focusing on foreign markets now. If they come to India soon, then this strategy might not work here, because Indian's purchasing power is lower in comparison and India is a price-sensitive market, so if the price fluctuates a little then also the product will either become hit or flop. Sony has to make other products keeping the Indian market situation in mind, and here they might have to try something else other than the specifications and have to provide such features so that people buy Sony's phone But if they bring the right product at the right price then also it might work out here. So we have to wait and see when they do it, but the Xperia's phones which Sony had launched recently have cracked that something which LG didn't able to crack. LG was also trying out unique things on their phones, but the features which LG was offering was unable to target any audience, the phones were unique but they were unable to get the audience, meanwhile, Sony targetted their loyal fans, and the creative professional and the technology overall gave them a good audience base whom they can sell their phone to, and this might happen that in the future, Sony might bring the upgraded versions of these phones targetting the same audience also. If Sony doesn't have any competitor in this segment, Sony has made their own spot in the market where nobody else can defeat them, the same thing other companies must do. Similarly HTC, BlackBerry, etc they have to do something which helps them to make a comeback again.

So if Sony Xperia 1 mark 3 comes then will you go for it or you'll not. Let's see what happens in the future. That's all for this post, stay Tuned to CERadar.