Why did Sony mobile phones fail in China?

Yesterday, the news of Sony Mobile's massive layoffs in China made people sigh with emotion. With Samsung's loss of power in China, other international brands are no longer as competitive as they used to be in the Chinese market, at least in terms of brand premium, they cannot convince consumers. With the same configuration, why should I pay an extra 1,000 or 2,000 yuan to buy your phone instead of a domestic phone?

The rapid development of domestic mobile phones is one of the reasons why Sony's mobile phone sales in China are not stagnant, but this is definitely not the fundamental reason for the large-scale layoffs in Sony Mobile China. Sony's defeat in China is caused by a series of Sony's own reasons, and external competition has only accelerated its decline.

Lack of marketing awareness and weak advertising

The marketing and promotion costs of a Samsung flagship phone are equivalent to the promotion costs of all Sony Mobile products in a year. Except for large and medium-sized cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu, you basically don't see any billboards for Sony phones. Many cities don't even have Sony phone counters.

This is also the crux of Sony as a whole. Sony's flagship phone is a particularly competitive product in the Android market. Sony believes too much in the saying "Good wine needs no bush". But in today's social media era, marketing and promotion are king. Even a second-rate product can be promoted to a first-rate product through continuous marketing hype.

Of course, Sony people may never be willing to admit that their own mobile phone products are second-rate products, but in my eyes, including previous usage, they always give people a kind of imperfect beauty. Sony knows the shortcomings of its products, but is unwilling to change them, or simply drags the shortcomings of the products to the next generation.

Can you imagine the rise of Samsung? If it weren’t for the strong marketing, do you really think Samsung would be able to compete with the iPhone? Samsung’s advertising and marketing is to take advantage of the shortcomings of the iPhone and compete in a misaligned way to tell consumers why they need Samsung. If you look at Sony’s mobile phone ads, they are still limited to the engineers’ thinking, telling you a lot of hardware parameters and how impressive the advanced technology is, but do consumers really care?

Local services cannot highlight Sony's core advantages

The international version of the XPERIA phone not only has a complete set of GMS, but also Sony's own Music Unlimited, Video Unlimited music and movie rental services, as well as a number of exclusive game content provided by PlayStation Mobile.

What about in China? The music is handed over to Duomi and Baidu. Rather than being integrated into the Walkman channel, it is more like just a shortcut. I can't use the Walkman app itself to play songs in the Duomi or Baidu music library. I still need to open a third-party program. What's the point of this?

The video was handed over to Sohu, which set up a special Sony zone, but the experience was really bad, and PlayStation was even worse. Other features such as social platform sharing, call recording, and Sony app selections are all available on China Coollink Xiaomi, and they are done better. I have what you don't have, and I do better with what you have.

Serious internal fighting

Sony's internal struggles are enough to make a palace drama. After Sony acquired Ericsson's shares, it has been merging Sony Electronics and Sony Mobile, from marketing to operations and finally to procurement, but the process has not been smooth.

Starting with Z Ultra, Sony Electronics fully took over the sales of mobile phones in open market channels, but Sony Electronics obviously had no experience in doing this well. Apart from filling its own Sony Stores with mobile phones, it also sold large quantities of goods to Sony dealers. As a result, the price of Z1 collapsed shortly after it was launched on the market. Some dealers even sold the mobile power bank and the phone separately in the Z1 gift box to make two profits.

Sony Mobile also clings to the operator's leg. The two parties act independently. Although they both belong to Sony, they are in a state of "if I do well, it's my credit, if I don't do well, I blame the other party." They don't regard each other as a family at all.

Prices are inflated and dive fast

Before Sony Electronics took over, Sony Mobile itself had a certain ability to control prices. At least the official products would not reduce the price by 700 yuan a month and then adjust the price just a few days after being on the market. Most of the cheap Sony mobile phones were purchased from parallel importers.

Now, because Sony Electronics does not have enough business experience, it often distributes a large number of mobile phones to dealers after developing them, and dealers arbitrarily reduce prices to increase sales. They do not take into account the feelings of the first batch of consumers who bought Sony flagship phones at high prices. You know, selling products is not a one-time business. No one wants a mobile phone that they just bought at a high price to be reduced in price within a week or two.

"I bought this flagship phone for 4999, and it dropped to 4299 after a month! Two months later it dropped to 3699! This phone doesn't feel high-end at all!" These are the thoughts of a former Sony fan who has turned hater.

The inflated prices are not only reflected in the Xperia Z series, which is the highest-end flagship of Sony mobile phones. Its price is comparable to that of Samsung, HTC, and iPhone, and Sony fans have accepted it. However, the pricing of the T series and the M series is really one more deadly than the other. The T2 Ultra was launched at 2888 for the China Mobile version and 2399 for the China Unicom version. The HTC 816, which has better configuration than it, only costs 1999, and its advertising is more aggressive than yours. Which one do you think consumers will choose? And the M2, which uses a Qualcomm 400 CPU and has no highlights, dares to be priced directly at 2399, but the price was adjusted as soon as it arrived.

To put it bluntly, Sony still can't let go of its own stature to compete with the rapid development of domestic mobile phones. As a result, the price remains high, the product is not good enough, and the advertising and marketing are not strong. Why would consumers buy your mobile phone? Is it just because of the word "Sony"? Do you really think that Sony fans have faith? And those Sony fans who clamor "Sony xx is good" only worship Sony game consoles and games, not Sony mobile phones. Since the day of its birth, Sony mobile phones have never been ahead of their competitors!

Since Kazuo Hirai took over Sony, Sony has been promoting the One Sony strategy. Undoubtedly, Sony mobile phones will be the core product of One Sony. Sony has no reason not to make mobile phones, and even less reason to give up the Chinese market, which has the largest number of users in the world. Sony should face up to the rise of competitors, put aside its own status, and use its own unique advantages to tell consumers the value of Sony mobile phones.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.