Sony Hands Out Pink Slips For 1,000 Employees In Smartphone Division
Back on October of last year, Sony said it planned to eliminate 1,000 jobs in its mobile division. Now three months later, Sony crunched the numbers and is reportedly going to hand out an additional 1,000 pink slips, the latest of which will mostly affect its smartphone operations in Europe and China, according to reports.
By the time Sony is finished laying off workers, the company's mobile division will be left with 5,000 employees, representing a 30 percent reduction by the end of the company's fiscal year ending March 2016.
Many prominent smartphone manufacturers are having trouble competing in the cutthroat market. Samsung and Apple sell the most handsets, though there's also rising competition from Chinese OEMs like Xiaomi that are boosting their market share by concentrating on affordable entry-level devices. These companies are willing to operate on razor thin profit margins, leaving firms like Sony in a tough spot.
One saving grace for Sony is that it's a popular brand in China, and that extends into its smartphone line. At the same time, overall phone sales haven't been where Sony would like them to be, so the firm announced last October that it would shift some of the focus away from mobile and into more popular areas, such as its PlayStation division.
Like HTC and Samsung, Sony plans to scale back the number of smartphone models it releases this year, hence part of the reason for the ongoing job cuts.
By the time Sony is finished laying off workers, the company's mobile division will be left with 5,000 employees, representing a 30 percent reduction by the end of the company's fiscal year ending March 2016.
Many prominent smartphone manufacturers are having trouble competing in the cutthroat market. Samsung and Apple sell the most handsets, though there's also rising competition from Chinese OEMs like Xiaomi that are boosting their market share by concentrating on affordable entry-level devices. These companies are willing to operate on razor thin profit margins, leaving firms like Sony in a tough spot.
One saving grace for Sony is that it's a popular brand in China, and that extends into its smartphone line. At the same time, overall phone sales haven't been where Sony would like them to be, so the firm announced last October that it would shift some of the focus away from mobile and into more popular areas, such as its PlayStation division.
Like HTC and Samsung, Sony plans to scale back the number of smartphone models it releases this year, hence part of the reason for the ongoing job cuts.
