Sony set to lower smartphone targets again?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony may be planning once again to cut smartphone shipment forecasts for FY14 (year to March 2015). Back in July, Sony had reduced its smartphone estimates from 50 million units to 43 million units. To give you some context, Sony sold 39 million smartphones in FY13.

WSJ says that Sony is “likely to trim its smartphone sales target by several millions of units”, which could mean it is expecting a similar number as the prior year i.e. a broadly flat position.

This forecast reduction came on the back of a strategic review of its mid-range portfolio, given the struggle in emerging markets against fierce competition. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean a truly disastrous result, especially if the mix of those smartphones have much higher ASPs (average selling prices) due to a bias towards the premium segment.

By all accounts and purposes, the Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact have been receiving widespread acclaim from the media. For the first time, Sony Xperia devices released this year appear to have equal standing from the media when compared to the other big Android giants such as Samsung and HTC.

Sony plans to update the market on its smartphone strategy at an Investor Day taking place in Tokyo on Tuesday 25 November 2014.

Via The Wall Street Journal.

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