”Strides” made by Chinese smartphone makers has for Sony...

"Strides” made by Chinese smartphone makers has for Sony caused a “worsening” of the market in mid-priced handsets, spurring Sony to impose an impairment charge of 180 billion yen in its mobile communications business, CEO Kazuo Hirai said in a hastily called news conference Wednesday in Tokyo. The impairment charge means Sony now expects to record a 230-billion-yen net loss for the year ending March 31, vs. the 50-billion-yen loss predicted in its July forecast, the company said. Sony finished last fiscal year with a 128.4-billion-yen net loss. In its smartphone business, Sony now will forego higher unit sales and market share in exchange for profit, Hirai said, without giving specifics. The “overarching strategy” for mobile communications will be to “reduce risk and volatility, and to deliver more stable profits,” Hirai said. Again without giving specifics, Sony will change its smartphone strategy “in certain geographical areas, concentrating on its premium lineup, and reducing the number of models in its mid-range lineup,” Hirai said. A restructuring of Sony Mobile Communications will mean a 15 percent headcount reduction, but more details on that will be released later, he said. Though Sony on Wednesday didn’t offer a regional breakdown of where its smartphone business has hit potholes, the company as recently as mid-June said it would use the digital imaging technology and content “assets” unique to Sony as differentiation tools to build a bigger foothold in the U.S. smartphone business in the fiscal year that runs through March 31 (CED June 10 p4). That followed earlier vows by Hirai to “grow our presence” in the U.S. smartphone market, but to do so in a “prudent” way that won’t jeopardize profit (CED May 23 p1).