Slashdot Mirror
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.
When you axe the devices that are popular and actually fairly unique (the Compact models), don't be suprised at falling sales when people go to other, more popular, brands that have carrier promotions/perks for the same-ol phablet.
Your comment does not make much sense.
I quite liked the Xperia SP I had a few years back, for the price it was well built and lasted me well. I liked the design too. But Sony's version of Android was just so odd...
I've never even heard of one!
They go by the brandname Xperia. I have never seen one in America. I have seen a few in Japan, but they are far from popular even there.
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
"We have a âno acronym policyâ(TM), or NAP.â -- SpaceX Orientation Video
Douglas Adams only got one thing wrong. The collapse of civilization occurs because of peak mobile phone, not the shoe event horizon.
Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
Who knew? I've never seen one.
April fool!
No sig today...
I don't think too many people think of Samsung as the leaders anymore. They do make good highend smartphones but the companies like Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo and other Chinese manufacturers are the ones pushing the boundaries at the moment, even so their isn't a lot of differentiation (except in price).
I won't buy a smartphone from energizer just to get a better battery life. Why would I buy a phone where the only thing you can say about it is that it's better as a standalone camera? No doubt it's a great camera, but anything that advanced I'd rather just have a real camera with a much bigger lens.
Replace Samsung with iPhone and re-read.
If this keeps up, they'll have to slash their workforce in half.
Table-ized A.I.
I considered one but opted not to buy it because it had Facebook preinstalled and it was not removable.
Sony's problem, no unique phone design to create an identity in the phone space. One model needs to be specific to them, otherwise they are just seen as a follower no different to any Chinese phone manufacturer. They have no identity in the phone market and need to create one.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Wow. I upgraded from a OnePlus 3 to a OnePlus 6 middle of last year, and I immediately noticed how much smoother everything is. Not that the OnePlus 3 did not feel smooth before, but there's still a noticeable difference. Also um, don't forget (security) updates - they alone are worth upgrading to a new generation.
FWIW, the reason I upgraded was band coverage. I was going to travel more, and about to visit the US, so going from LTE bands 1/3/5/7/8/20 to 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/18/19/20/25/26/28/29/30/32/66/71 was a huge step forward.
I should mod you informative and the AC as "ditto" because my first instinct was to say "Sony makes smartphones?"
I never heard of Xperia either. It sounds a bit too much like Experian for my tastes.
Personally, I think Sony's problem is they blew their reputation as a maker of solid electronics. Maybe I was naive, but I used to think of quality when I thought of Sony - about 30 years ago. That faded away in the past 3 decades.
The thing is that updating the software shouldn't need buying new hardware. Software updates in Windows don't require that you buy a new PC. That's a really stupid aspect of owning a smartphone. That's better if you own an iPhone but still the smartphone market feels like it has a lot of programmed obsolescence in it. It's not just a waste of money having to upgrade that often it also generates a huge amount of electronic waste that pollutes the environment
The one interesting thing about Sony Xperia phone is that Sony has an OpenDevice program:
- which keeps providing modern Linux kernel and drivers, so you could easily get a 4.9 kernel and AOSP 9.0 Pie on a several-years-old Xperia.
(As opposed to most manufacturer, where you're left with whatever blob is in the phone)
- their Xperia are trivial to unlock and flash with custom aftermarked OS.
(Unlike some competitors which aren't letting you use anything but the manufacturer's official ROM)
That could be either something Android based, like LineageOS.
Or even something completely different. e.g.: Jolla (the former guys who used to do Meego / Maemo at Nokia before the whole Microsoft/Elop fiacso happened upon them) make Sailfish X for a few select models.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]