Sony To Slash Smartphone Workforce 50% By 2020 (nikkei.com)

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.

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Re:Sony makes smartphones?

[Rei]

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