In early 2016, Sony decided to exit from the entry-level smartphone market in India. The logic behind this move was to focus on mid-range and premium smartphones, but everyone knows that it was because of the fierce competition by the Chinese companies in this segment.
LG and recently HTC decided to exit from entry-level smartphone segment in India as well. All these brands want to focus on smartphones priced greater than Rs. 25,000. However, Sony has another thought on this.
The Japan-based technology company wants to exit from the ‘Premium Standard’ segment, as it calls it, at a global level. This means that Sony Xperia X and X Compact, that were launched in 2016, will be discontinued globally.
At 2017 Investor Day, Sony announced this and also mentioned that the focus now will be on mid-range and high-end segment. These segments encompass Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra as well as the high-end Xperia XZ Premium and XZs.
In Japan, this Premium Standard segment did pretty well, but outside the home country, the sales were very low. It made sense to discontinue these products and focus on ones that are actually important to the customers.
“Sony is seeking to try and recover market share in 2017 and hopes to differentiate its products “with technologies that only Sony can deliver”. It will also only focus on markets, where it can leverage its brand strength. This includes territories such as Japan, East Asia, APAC, Middle East and Europe,” says a report by Xperia Blog.
Sony’s sales in India are Abysmal & Dipping Further
While in countries in North America and Europe, the sales of Xperia smartphones is still strong, in India the sales are dropping every year. The major reason for this is the existence of an entry-level segment that cannot be taken away from Chinese manufacturers. They have completely dominated this segment.
Moving to mid-range segment, Samsung, Xiaomi and Motorola have a good grip over the Indian market. The high-end market has also been captured by Samsung and Apple and Sony has been losing its grip.
The market share of Sony smartphones in India is close to 1% and the biggest reason has been the price. Affordability and reliability are two major points considered by a customer in India, which Sony lacks. After sales, service is nothing great either and often Sony’s accessories are priced higher than the competition.
The company’s glory days with Sony Ericsson got over as soon as the Walkman phase in India died down. After that, the sales never picked up in any of the segments and the mobility division of the company continued to quit from developing nations.
Source: Xperia Blog
