Why does Sony continue to make smartphones?
Sony still makes smartphones because they have to.
Why would Sony stop manufacturing smartphones?
Market share
Sony occupy almost nothing in Global smartphone market share but that is not the whole story. Sony smartphones are unique. Their smartphones are meant for specific people (i.e. targeted customers).
If we look closely we can see that Sony manufactures smartphones which are high focused on Cameras and photography and therefore their targeted customers are photographers or photography enthusiasts and these customers are not huge in number.
Previously Sony smartphones were used by normal people but in all these years a lot of things have changed — Design, Specs, Competition, etc. But its seems like Sony didn’t change and that is one of the main reasons why it lost its market share and started making smartphones for their target customers.
This raises one question — Are Sony smartphones bad?
Answer is No. (This is very subjective, you may like the design which I may not). Right from the start of smartphone era Sony smartphones didn’t change a lot in terms of design and aesthetics, whereas other smartphone designs changed from time to time.
Personally I like Sony smartphones (design), I even like to buy one because their smartphones has everything what a normal flagship has without any compromises and they don’t compromise in price as well, which is the main problem that stops so many people like me to choose some other brand.
Why Sony don’t occupy even a small chunk of market share?
Reasons:
- Price
- Mid-range smartphones — Similar to flagship category Sony mid-range smartphones are priced higher but the price doesn’t justify the specs and quality.
- Advertisements — In India (when Sony was functioning) I did see some of their advertisements but they were dominated by other vendors like Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, Honor, etc. This is one area where they lost market share because Vivo and Oppo didn’t have good products still they make huge sales with just marketing.
Then why is Sony still making smartphones?
- Market share — Sony is a Japan based company. In Japan they occupy almost 10% of the smartphone market share which is fairly a good share (In UK they occupy 2% market share).
- Target customers — As said it makes smartphones for their target customers who are not only located in Japan but all over the world.
