Sony revises forecasts downwards after Xperia sales disappoint

What happened to Sony Xperia smartphones in 2015? After reaching an all-time high in Q4 2014, numbers slipped in 2015 and continued to fall for much of 2016. Financial results for Q4 2016 show that Sony shipped 5.1 million Xperia smartphones in that time period, bringing the total for the entire year to 15.1 million units shipped. That’s just a little over half the number of units shipped in the year before.

Part of the reason why Sony is facing issues is that the company is not meeting expectations in Latin America and the Middle East, forcing them to slash Xperia shipment forecasts multiple times. This certainly doesn’t sound positive, but Sony is in the process of restructuring its Sony Mobile business in order to focus on profits rather than units sold. By cutting down production and focusing on specific smartphones with high profit margins like the Xperia XZ, Sony has managed to stem the bleeding in its smartphone division and return to profitability.

Sony has struggled to find a niche between the high-end flagships and a budget market that has been flooded by competition from Chinese manufacturers. Even its mid-range and more affordable devices such as the Xperia M4 Aqua are competing against rivals who can produce phones with similar specs for cheaper, making it a hard sell to those on a budget.

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