History
Sony Mobile Communications Inc. is a multinational mobile phone manufacturing company jointly headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and Lund, Sweden, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was founded on October 1, 2001 as a joint venture between Sony and the Swedish telecommunications equipment company Ericsson, under the name Sony Ericsson. Sony acquired Ericsson's share in the venture on February 16, 2012, and renamed it Sony.
It has research and development facilities in Tokyo, Japan; Chennai, India; Lund, Sweden; Beijing, China, and Silicon Valley, United States. In the year 2014, Sony sold around 40.0 million units of its smartphones, with a market share of 3.9%
Previously, Sony used the tagline "Make. Believe", but recently it was changed to "Be Moved".
The current flagship device of Sony is the Sony Xperia Z3, a smartphone that is water and dust proof with an IP rating of 68, a Quad core 2.5 GHz Krait Processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Chipset, Android 4.4.4 OS, and a 20.7-megapixel, G Lens, Exmor RS, and BIONZ image processor powered, with 4K video recording capabilities.
Analysis
As already known, positioning of a brand is of utmost importance for the growth and success of the brand in question, as well as influencing the perception of the market towards the brand.
Sony's most recent strategy is using the tagline "Be Moved", whereas earlier it was "Make. Believe". Thus, it is attempting to connect emotionally with the customers. As Sony Corporation (as a whole) has already been operating successfully since mid 1950s and introducing path-breaking innovations like the Walkman, Compact Discs, and PlayStation, it used this slogan to attract all the loyal customers it has garnered over the years. Also, it provided software and hardware capabilities of its other products into the smartphones themselves, like the Walkman music player, PlayStation Certification, EXMOR R Sensor camera, etc. to attract its existing customers who use its other products. Thus, Sony is positioning itself by creating values and beliefs.
Another strategy Sony is implementing is that it has changed its flagship upgrade cycle to twice a year. This means that it will release two flagship smartphones every year, each six months after the previous one. This is a bold and new move by Sony, because the industry standard is to release one flagship smartphone each year. However, according to Sony Mobile's Creative Director, Director of Product Planning and UX General Manager, Yoshiro Kurozumi, "in order to maintain the flagship status of the product, you must upgrade it faster to keep it competitive."
Recommendations
As Sony already is a well established brand, the decision to position itself by creating values and beliefs is a sound one.
However, the strategy to release two flagships per year is a bad decision. This is because if they choose to keep on releasing two flagships per year, then the smartphones will be incremental updates, rather than major updates over the previous models. Thus, most customers will hesitate to buy the newer smartphones due to the insignificant updates. Also, most people choose to buy one phone per year, as flagships cost a significant amount. This will cause Sony to lose customers, both due to the incremental updated phones and as well as confusion due to the number of choices of phones by them. If Sony wants to improve its stance, it should follow the industry standard, that is, to release one flagship smartphone each year. If it does so, then the phones will be significantly updated compared to the previous flagship, and consumers will have a better and only choice offered to them.
References
1. Sony Corporation. (n.d.). Corporate Info- History.
Retrieved from SONY: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/
2. Sony Xperia Z2 will only be the flagship for six
months more. (2014, February 27). Retrieved
from GSMarena.com:
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_z2_will_be_flagship_for_half_the_year-news-7942.php
3. Wu, A., & Chen, A. (2015, January 20). Global
Smartphone Shipments in 2014 Totaled 1.167B with Samsung and Apple as First
and Second, TrendForce Reports. Retrieved from TrendForce:
http://press.trendforce.com/node/view/1806.html
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