Sony To Slash Smartphone Workforce 50% By 2020 (nikkei.com) 51
Sony is cutting up to half its smartphone workforce as sales shrink in the face of stiff global competition. From a report: The job cuts come as the global smartphone industry suffers one of the severest downturns of recent years. Worldwide shipments are expected to decline for the third straight year in 2019 to about 1.3 billion units, according to U.S. research company IDC. Sony's share of the smartphone market has fallen sharply in recent years -- from more than 3% in 2010, according to the research portal Statistica -- to less than 1% currently. It has struggled to compete against leaders Apple, Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies, all of which are racing to develop new 5G devices. The decision to scale back its smartphone workforce, which could see up to 2,000 of the total 4,000 jobs cut by March 2020, is part of a move to reduce fixed costs in the business, and also includes procurement reform.
Re:Sony makes smartphones? (Score:4, Interesting)
I've never even heard of one!
They go by the brandname Xperia [wikipedia.org]. I have never seen one in America. I have seen a few in Japan, but they are far from popular even there.
Re: (Score:2)
I should mod you informative and the AC as "ditto" because my first instinct was to say "Sony makes smartphones?"
I never heard of Xperia either. It sounds a bit too much like Experian for my tastes.
Re:Sony makes smartphones? (Score:5, Informative)
LOVE my Sony XZ2 Premium. Awesome low-light sensitivity, particularly for video (has a second camera dedicated specifically to low-light data). I can capture northern lights that are too dim for me to see with the naked eye. Does 1080p 960fps slow motion, and 4k HDR video. Wonderful bokehs and macro shots. Colours captured like they are in the real world, not "ramped up" with filters. Beautifully built. Glass basically unscratchable (although I assume it's still possible to shatter them... I've managed to crack Sony smartphones before, particularly my last one which died by being run over by a bus ;) ). LCD screen rather than OLED, so the display will always look as nice as the day I bought it - which is very nice indeed (OLEDs degrade way too fast). IP68.
My only real criticism would be the lack of an optical zoom; that would be a really significant benefit to the camera stack. Oh, and I once was really annoyed by the fact that if you hit the max SD card file size while recording a video (easy to do at 4k HDR), it just stops recording, rather that starting a new file... so I had a gap in my video where I had to restart the recording. Overall though, I just love this phone. I use it with a Sony smartband, which is a super-cheap equivalent to a smart watch... no screen, but that's not what I use it for (virtual tether so I can't lose my phone, lets me page my phone to find it, vibrates when I get an incoming call or alarm and I'm not near the phone, etc).
Not sure if I'll stick with Sony in the future, though - they're moving away from LCDs. Then again, so is everyone else, so.... :P
Re: (Score:2)
I won't buy a smartphone from energizer just to get a better battery life [energizermobile.com]. Why would I buy a phone where the only thing you can say about it is that it's better as a standalone camera? No doubt it's a great camera, but anything that advanced I'd rather just have a real camera with a much bigger lens.
Re: (Score:2)
Sony's problem, no unique phone design to create an identity in the phone space. One model needs to be specific to them, otherwise they are just seen as a follower no different to any Chinese phone manufacturer. They have no identity in the phone market and need to create one.
Re: (Score:2)
Personally, I think Sony's problem is they blew their reputation as a maker of solid electronics. Maybe I was naive, but I used to think of quality when I thought of Sony - about 30 years ago. That faded away in the past 3 decades.
OpenDevice program (Score:2)
The one interesting thing about Sony Xperia phone is that Sony has an OpenDevice program:
- which keeps providing modern Linux kernel and drivers, so you could easily get a 4.9 kernel and AOSP 9.0 Pie on a several-years-old Xperia.
(As opposed to most manufacturer, where you're left with whatever blob is in the phone)
- their Xperia are trivial to unlock and flash with custom aftermarked OS.
(Unlike some competitors which aren't letting you use anything but the manufacturer's official ROM)
That c
Re: (Score:2)
Who knew? I've never seen one.
April fool!
Re: (Score:1)
If this keeps up, they'll have to slash their workforce in half.
Re: Here lies Moore, dead by overhype. (Score:2)
Your comment does not make much sense.
Re: (Score:2)
Replace Samsung with iPhone and re-read.
Re: (Score:2)
Shocking. (Score:2)
When you axe the devices that are popular and actually fairly unique (the Compact models), don't be suprised at falling sales when people go to other, more popular, brands that have carrier promotions/perks for the same-ol phablet.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The problem with Sony is that they produce too many models and update them too frequently which just increases support costs. Basically they where updating lines every six months where every 12 months would be more than fine, and then they could keep supporting them for longer.
I had a Z1 compact and went to a XZ1 compact. I have no idea where I will go next to get a compact waterproof phone with a headphone socket.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I went from the Xperia Z2 to the Xperia XZ2. The software stack got a lot better between the two. Back in the Z2 days there was too much bloatware that you couldn't uninstall.
Re: (Score:2)
Shoe Event Horizon (Score:3)
Douglas Adams only got one thing wrong. The collapse of civilization occurs because of peak mobile phone, not the shoe event horizon.
Facebook (Score:1)