Sony has been quite the player in the mobile technology industry as of late. With their Xperia Z lines of weatherproof phones and their smartwatches, they are beginning to establish quite the name for themselves. Sony is now looking to sell off their Vaio laptop brand and transform their television industry into a subsidiary, so it looks like they will be able to focus more on their mobile lines than ever before. Specifically, the tech giant from Japan has intentions of improving their wearable devices like smartwatches and smart bands. At CES, they showed off some new wearable technology that was geared towards their SmartWear products, which are still kind of enigmatic to us. They are expected to reveal much more information about them next week at MWC in Barcelona, so stay tuned for more info.
For Sony, this could be the breath of life the company needs. They have been known for being innovative and on the cutting edge for years, but recently their devices, while impressive in internal statistics, have not been selling as well as they could have. Their plans have not been working the best for them in the mobile fields, so then this motion to focus more on wearable tech might be brilliant. There are not a lot of major players in the wearable tech fields, so entering and focusing on that market now may be the right move. As I talked about before, I believe smartwatches have the potential to be the future of the industry, so Sony might be able to lead us into a new era, especially since the Galaxy Gear hasn’t really taken off like Samsung really anticipated.
Sony currently has a very limited market share in the United States, with T-Mobile being the only carrier to support their phones, and even that is just their Xperia Z1S. If Sony really wants to improve in the cellular markets, they would need to get in with AT&T or Verizon, and it seems rather unlikely that it will happen in the immediate future. For now, their best bet is the wearable field. Their new SmartWatch 2 has received some good reviews, so Sony will likely capitalize on that success. Their major advantage against their current major competitor, Samsung, is that the Galaxy Gear is designed only to work with Galaxy smartphones, which makes the device a niche product. This is not to disregard the importance of other smartwatches like the Pebble, however. I am simply referring to the other major companies out there that are would be competing with Sony. Have any thoughts on the matter? Let us know below!