Sony merges mobile, camera divisions under new 'Electronics Products and Solutions' unit

smartphone sales overall are declining, it's not just sony:

"TOKYO -- Sony is cutting up to half its smartphone workforce as sales shrink in the face of stiff global competition.
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."
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Sony-to-slash-smartphone-workforce-50-by-2020

"Apple and Samsung feel the sting of plateauing smartphones:
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Samsung’s soft sales of the Galaxy S9 through 2018 and Apple’s dramatically reduced forecast of iPhone revenues for the end of that year, it’s that most people who want a great smartphone already have one."
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/3/18166399/iphone-android-apple-samsung-smartphone-sales-peak

Before Sony Mobile there was Sony Ericsson. Before Sony Ericsson there was Sony Mobile and Ericsson Mobile. Ericsson were over engineered and over priced and could not sell into carriers because of Nokia and Motorola, and a factory fire in Spain that destroyed their only manufacturing plant. Sony thought they could sell because of their name, they couldn't, hence the start of Sony Ericsson. Sony Ericsson thought they could sell because of their name. But Apple and Samsung had joined the party. Sony bought out Ericsson. But Apple and Samsung and Huawei have killed them. Ericsson used to be a player in mobile phones. Sony Ericsson were never players, perhaps for a short while with the Walkman phones. Sony has never been a player and never will. They will slowly die in mobile.

worst cell phone experience I ever had.

This looks like plain old consolidation. TV prices have dropped through the floor in the last few months. Sony phones have been losing money forever. The camera business is shrinking and Sony now has determined competition in mirrorless, so that business will clearly shrink too. It is doubtful whether the whole package will make any money.

the merging of software tech between cameras and phones would be a great step forward .... who knows if sony will allow cameras to benefit form phone advances

Other than APPLE, making money from phone is not easy, such as Huawei is not in good shape financially too, and needs money desperately as seen from news from inside of China:

"Huawei to lay off employees and cut costs as economy slows"
https://technode.com/2019/01/21/huawei-lay-off-employees/

FWIW, economy is not slowing/down turn.

Why are they so stubborn though? Is it not time to make drastic changes?

They need to hire new people that actually have an idea of what the customers want, because whoever is in charge now is clearly not delivering.

In the meanwhile I'll stick to buying Xiaomi and Nokia phones until Sony enters the 21st century.

The only way I would ever have a Sony camera is if it came with a Sony phone.

It's essential to understand that Sony is a company with a lot of branches, no matter how they' re integrated/related in mother company. The main selling point it's Sony logo and the pressure for profit it's more demanding due to its size. This may explain/justify a lot of their decisions in last 30 years.

Cameras could benefit from powerful image processing available in phones. Camera image processors are many generations behind what is in phones.

Whatever it takes to deliver me a RX1m3 and a new Compact line phone.

Sony makes solid phones, but the competition is hard and even. Whichever company spends the most to advertising, sells the most.

I think Sony needs to integrate their Phones with theirs cameras.
And also push the camera in the phone to a new level.
Sony has they know-how and could be a great alternative to non-chineese products.

I love Sony cameras and did a shift after 20 years using Canon.
Go Sony go.

Ps. If Sony don't do anything dramatic game shifting on the mobile market . Better drop the mobile business

Sony phones are the best reliable smartphone, I have Xperia X for four years now
like as a new still runs perfect, and my new phone in the future will be Sony
P.S:Xperia 1 is best looking smartphone in 2019

For young people Sony phones are not hip or cool. They want apple or Samsung.

Personally, I don't get the criticism of Sony phones. I think that they are losing to Apple purely on hype. I stopped using iPhones because their font is too small, even after all settings are adjusted to the max. My Xperia, on the other hand, is a pleasure to use, an honest workforce. My Sony VAIO desktop served me for 13 years without a single hickup. Unfortunately, Sony got pushed out of that market by the Chinese on price, and by Apple, again on hype. In 5 years of owning my iMac, I had to replace its AMD graphics card 4 (thats FOUR) times, at $450 a pop. Every time Apple made up excuses. (Only recently have I found out that my iMac configuration was recalled... but only in Australia. Apparently, the US consumer laws are not as consumer - oriented.) I guess quality and honesty don't pay in this business. Still, I have a lot of respect for Sony.

You should be able to make phone calls from your a7riv soon

It looks like, to me anyway, the only real "photography element" that seems to be left in photography is glass. Film has been replaced by electronics and therefore a chance for the electronics companies to step into the game. Companies like Sony, with a background in electronics, seem to be a natural player. I am not sure about the quality of their glass, but they seem to be allied with some major lens manufacturers. Fifteen years ago, I swore that I would never go digital because film would always be better. Then I claimed I would never go EVF because OVF would always be better. Now, I never use film and would never give up EVF. I think there is a change in the photography business and the electronics guys are the guys driving it.

:
One can hope that now maybe they can slightly improve the trend of making third-rate pathetic camera phones.

Soon we will see Chelsea and Tony bubbling about Sony phones, which don't sell anyway and critisizing Nikon ...oops iPhones and Samsung phones

It's baffling how Sony makes one of the highest quality LCD/LED panels in the world yet give us those horrid screens in their 3000$+ cameras. The Canon 200D/SL2 450$ camera has a significantly better screen than the A7III, with iPhone-grade touch functionality and a very colour accurate 3" wide-view panel. Canon seems to be getting screens from a high-end touch-panel manufacturer like Samsung/LG.

I hope merging these divisions in Sony helps in the sharing if technology, like getting the alpha cameras Siny's high-end touch panels and their mobile AI/Compurational trickert, as well as the mobile division getting some Alpha tech like IBIS, great lenses, amazing DR, lowlight performance, hell they have the best sensors in the world and own Zeiss glass and have amazing computational power that they SHOULD be making the best camera-phones out there!

Ouch. That loss from the smartphone division wiped out the entire profits of the camera division and then some.

Sony should get out of the smartphone business. That ship has sailed; there are too many competitors...Apple, Samsung, the Chinese brands, etc...all with established markets of customers and brand reputation. And they have deep pockets; deeper than Sony. It's a lucrative market if you can make it but it's a very tough market to compete in, and at this point there's little Sony can do to gain a foothold.

its Wouldn’t surprise me if this is a move towards the implementation of a smartphone like interface that replaces the LCD and introduces smartphone like computational photography capabilities to an a-series camera. Guessing that Zeiss’ ZX1 gave Sony engineers a bit of inspiration.

Interesting.
Last year there were rumors Sony wanted to combine electronics divisions and sell them. This is the first step.

Sony Germany at Cp+ said Sony camera division is losing sales and market share. Now they combined it with the most inept smartphone maker on the planet. That does not bode well.

And the cowards have pulled out of Australia/NZ altogether in the phone market. They destroy Ericsonn then continue to make ugly phones and now have packed up the ball and bat.

So TV and cameras are made by the same division? So that's why Sony cameras handle like DVD players? (I'm joking okay.)

I wonder why Sony keeps trying with phones. They look cool but are just so crazily overpriced. Maybe they'd want to look into their pricing models first.

Anyway who remembers the CyberShot phones? Yea that was during the Sony Ericsson era when phones were actually good.

March 28, 2019

Sony to close smartphone plant in China to cut costs

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sony-smartphone/sony-to-close-smartphone-plant-in-china-to-cut-costs-idUSKCN1R90F6

This is good news, but 21:9 aspect screens and their still insisting on using smaller, cheaper sensors than they supply to some of their customers or competitors (48MP 1/2" IMX586, 40MP 1/1.7" RGY for the P30 Pro etc) doesn't fill me with optimism.

As of now, they continue to charge an Apple like premium for inferior hardware ... which hasn't worked and won't work in a competitive Android market.

I guess it's a way to hide the losses of the mobile division in the profits of the camera division.

Hope this merger will result in at least two things:
- making their cameras' touchscreens work for anything, including navigating menus and viewing photos (as almost every other manufacturer's ML/DSLR cameras released in the last year work)
- make their top and bottom chins way thinner in their premium, very expensive phones

Maybe Sony will use the same YouTube bloggers to promote for their phones.
Those vloggers will start hypeing the sh... out of them.

This is a good move if it increases the chances they'll use smartphone camera technology in their cameras. I like my RX100, but at the rate at which smartphone cameras are improving, I see myself reaching for the camera less and less often.

So the A9.1 will be a 55 inch tv that shoot 4k and i can make a call.

Back in 2006, the last time I owned a Sony Phone, they have an excellent 3.2 Megapixel camera with a real flash and a 35mm equivalent lens which had an f2.8 aperture. They were known for their above average ability to play MP3 at high quality with a low battery usage, and the battery life could be measured in days. I fondly remember that phone, but the generation that followed was not really any better and was the last great Sony Phone before a 12 year decline. Since Sony makes most of the sensors and lenses used in modern smartphones hopefully they can find a way make a better phone with good camera functionality.

However, as others have noted, the fact that they stripped out all of the good features to not compete with their customers and camera division for SO many years, means that the value of "CyberShot" branded phones is probably worse than zero. Now they're know for being expensive+poorly built with features and functions trailing the competition despite a premium price.

The Xperias are going down the drain, this doesn’t bode well

In a few years, Sony can shift their digital cameras to their VAIO division. :-)

Well, if they implement for their other electronics the strategy they used for their phones:

- Make beautiful phones that break all the time
- Strip the good stuff with each generation, but keep them unreliable
- Lose any individuality and keep buyers scratching their heads on how on Earth can they ask the same price as the industry leaders for clearly inferior but equally bland products

Then the future is bright :)

"The camera division is doing much better..."

That (previous) division includes Digital Imaging Group, Professional Solution and Services Group, Professional Products Group, Medical Business Group, and FeliCa Business Division, so it's impossible for an outsider to determine how profitable Sony's cameras are.

Wannabe-armchair-Sony-CEOs incoming in 3... 2... 1...

Sony should give up on mobile technology and license it from others just like Nikon buys their sensors. Then they should come out with the RX100 Mark VII with all the computational photography tools of the Pixel 3 and the Huawai P30 and turn the entire industry on its head.

Improve synergy, or improve balance sheets for investors? Must be the same thing....