Sony to reduce its mid-range offerings following revised financial forecast for FY14-15

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Published 17 Sep 2014

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Sony might have announced some impressive handsets at IFA earlier this month including the Xperia Z3 and the Z3 Compact, but things are not looking good for the mobile division of the ex-Japanese giant. 

In its revised forecast for the financial year ending on March 2015, the company announced an impairment of goodwill charge of a massive 180 billion yen.

The reason behind this impairment charge is the revised strategy from the company for its mid-range product. Back in July when Sony had announced its Q2 financial results, it mentioned that it will review its mid-range devices and their performance because of the increased competition in various markets.

Thanks to this review, the company has now decided to revise its mid-range product strategy “to reduce risk and volatility, and to deliver more stable profits.” Going forward, the company will be focusing on its premium line-up of smartphones in certain regions and reduce its mid-range offerings significantly.

Sony’s mid-range handsets never really stood out from the competition and only delivered mediocre specs and features in an overpriced package. Worse, Sony has been dropping software support for them within a year of its release, which has led existing Sony customers to stay away from its products in the future.

[Via Sony]