According to Pulsestacks on May 10th, Bloomberg reported that Sony's smartphone sales in Japan plummeted by 40% in 2023, and are expected to continue declining this year.
In 2023, Sony Xperia sold only 1 million units, while the entire Japanese market sold 30 million smartphones. This means Sony only holds a 3% market share in Japan, no longer ranking among the top five smartphone brands in the country.
Professor Jun Nishi from Waseda University pointed out that the camera software of Sony Xperia phones is too professional for average consumers and too limited for tech-savvy users.
Meanwhile, Google Pixel has seen a significant increase in popularity in Japan. In July 2023, Japan became the largest market for Google Pixel, with a 527% growth in sales in 2023. This is good news for Pixel but not so much for Sony's smartphone business.
As reported by pulsestacks, Sony is set to hold a Xperia new product launch event on May 15 at 15:00 Beijing time, where Xperia 1 VI and Xperia 10 VI phones are expected to be unveiled. The Xperia 1 VI will feature a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor but will no longer adopt the previous 21:9 screen aspect ratio, while the Xperia 10 VI will come with a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor.
