In its recently held investor day in Tokyo, Japan, Sony announced that it will be "defocusing" its smartphone business in the United States, China, India and Brazil.
According to slides acquired by Xperia Blog, the purpose behind the planned business contraction is to reduce the significant operating loss that the company's smartphones division is experiencing in these countries.
In its presentation, Sony noted that the global average annual growth of the smartphone market has dropped to 1.4 percent because of the slowdown being experienced in emerging markets. Significantly, growth in China, India, Brazil and Indonesia, which is 45 percent of the volume market, has slowed down to only 0.3 percent.
With these factors in mind, Sony will instead be refocusing its mobile phone business on markets in East Asia, including Japan, the Middle East and Europe. The company will also be maintaining its standing in Latin America and other regions in Southeast Asia.
While it was previously known that the product strategy of Sony for its mobile division is mainly focused on the premium smartphone market, it was not known that the company also has regional strategies in place.
Its focus on premium smartphones will not be changing, as Sony noted that the division will continue to refocus into high value-added models.
The move to defocus in the United States, China, India and Brazil is an understandable one. Given Sony's mounting losses in the regions, coupled with the fact that these markets are among the most competitive in the industry, the company would do well in shifting its focus elsewhere. Top players Apple and Samsung will continue to expand their reach in the regions, while relative newcomers such as Xiaomi and Huawei are showing that they have the capability to widen and maintain market share.
Of course, the question is whether the defocusing would actually matter for Sony, particularly for the United States.
The argument is that Sony never really had any sort of focus in the United States to begin with, as only a handful of its products has entered the market through the traditional channels that will allow customers to gain awareness and try out Sony's smartphones.
Sony has had numerous issues with its smartphones in the country, with one of the more recent ones being the failed venture with Verizon to bring the Xperia Z4v into the United States.
The Xperia Z4v was supposed to be the only version of the company's mid-2015 flagship smartphone to enter the United States, which was to be exclusively distributed by Verizon. It was canceled as the two companies stalled in launching the smartphone, which led to the release of the more powerful Xperia Z5 being done first.
