With wolves in front and tigers behind, is there still hope for Sony mobile phones?

The current smartphone market structure is basically like this: Apple and Samsung monopolize the high-end market, Chinese domestic mobile phone manufacturers divide up the mid- and low-end markets, and the remaining small market share belongs to old-fashioned mobile phone manufacturers such as HTC, LG, Sony and Motorola.

The speed of the decline of these once glorious mobile phone manufacturers is regrettable, especially Sony, which can no longer be found among the top ten mobile phone manufacturers in the world in terms of shipments.

Sony Ericsson

Compared with other established mobile phone manufacturers, Sony entered the mobile phone market relatively early. It was not until the late 1990s and early 2000s that Sony truly entered the mobile phone field.

Speaking of Sony, we have to mention Sony Ericsson, which was established on October 1, 2001 with 50% investment from two Fortune 500 companies, Sony and Ericsson. The Sony Ericsson brand lasted for a full ten years, and brought us countless classic mobile phones in these ten years.

The most important product of Sony Ericsson at the beginning of its establishment was the T618. "If the T618 had not appeared during that difficult period, Sony Ericsson might not exist." This was the evaluation of Sony Ericsson's senior executives at that time. The T618 (international model T610) was the most critical product of Sony Ericsson in its early days. Sony lost a total of 600 million euros between 2001 and 2003, and Sony Ericsson quickly turned losses into profits afterwards, and the T618 played an indispensable role.

It was with this phone that Sony Ericsson became an instant success. The bold and lively color scheme, metal shell and piano paint frame made the T618 one of the most popular phones among young people at the time. The 65,000-color STN material color display, a 100,000-pixel camera and a five-dimensional joystick were also popular designs at the time.

After that, Sony Ericsson launched Walkman music phones and Cyber-Shot series camera phones, which were very popular in the market, especially among young consumers. In the era when feature phones were still the mainstream of the market, Sony was almost on par with mobile phone giants such as Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, and Blackberry, and always in the first camp.

But once the storm of smartphones arrives, the mobile phone industry will inevitably undergo a major reshuffle.

The iPhone Effect

The most recent smartphone revolution came from Apple. The launch of the iPhone had a groundbreaking effect. After the launch of the iPhone, physical keyboard phones began to gradually fade out of history, and the era of large touch screens truly arrived.

There was no shortage of smartphones in the market before the iPhone was released, especially Windows Mobile represented by BlackBerry and HTC, but smartphones were only a niche market at that time, accounting for less than 10% of the market share of the entire mobile phone industry.

It is precisely because they did not pay enough attention to this and did not realize the huge threat posed by the iPhone that the old giants have been defeated. Typical examples are Nokia, Motorola and BlackBerry. Nokia and Motorola were forced to sell, and Motorola was sold twice. BlackBerry is also not doing well. Now we can hardly see BlackBerry phones on the market. Sony also failed to launch a product that can challenge the iPhone during this period.

Sony Ericsson's crisis began to emerge in 2008, when Sony was surpassed by LG and suffered huge losses.

Xperia Era

On October 27, 2011, Sony announced that it would acquire Ericsson's 50% stake in Sony Ericsson for 1.05 billion euros, making Sony Ericsson a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony. The transaction was completed in February 2012, and Sony Ericsson was renamed Sony Mobile.

As Sony Ericsson was renamed Sony Mobile, the company began to reorganize and the design concept changed. The original design concept of Sony Ericsson was: design that triggers all senses, that is, communicates rational wisdom and emotions. We seek to always be one step ahead of consumers so that they can resonate with our ideas and be inspired.

Sony Xperia's design concept is to pursue a higher level and more vitality, seamlessly integrating mobile Internet and multimedia entertainment experience into a unique and perfect design, so that you can share anything with others at any time and in any place.

Sony Ericsson was no longer mentioned in the Sony Xperia LT26i, and was renamed Sony Mobile Communications. The Xperia LT26i is the first product in the Sony Xperia NXT series and also the first dual-core mobile phone from Sony.

The appearance design of Xperia LT26i is very Japanese style, simple and fashionable, and the body uses a curved design.

The most distinctive feature of the Xperia LT26i is the beautiful transparent strip at the bottom of the body. This transparent strip is like a small glass house that separates the upper and lower parts of the body. It is very beautiful. Even now it still looks like an extremely inspiring and beautiful design. The transparency will flash rhythmically with incoming calls. The transparency of the decoration is actually the place where the mobile phone antenna module is placed. If you look closely at the inside of the transparent strip, you will see mesh lines. In fact, that is the circuit line used to connect the antenna, not just a decoration.

The transparent band was a very distinctive design when Sony Mobile started operating independently, and it also represented Sony's superior design skills. Unfortunately, Sony fell into a vicious circle, with good reviews but poor sales. Sony's products have always been highly praised, but sales are not satisfactory.

Another feature that runs through the Xperia product line is Sony's Omnibalance design. Starting with the Sony Xperia ZL36h, the double-sided glass thin body with sharp edges and corners is still used by Sony and has become a classic design. There are very few phones of the same era that can compete with Sony's Xperia models in terms of appearance.

In addition to design, Sony products also have a distinctive feature of waterproof and dustproof. Starting from Xperia LT26w, Sony has been carrying out the three-proofing road all the way. Basically, from Xperia LT26w to now, almost every Xperia series mobile phone of Sony has the three-proofing features. Waterproof and dustproof have almost become the synonyms of Sony, and only Sony can make the stupid, big, rough and black three-proof mobile phones so beautiful.

What's the problem?

Sony has an industrial design that other manufacturers cannot match, as well as triple-proof functions and a unique "G" lens. Why can't it compete with Apple, Samsung, and even domestic mobile phone manufacturers?

We have to admit that Sony's craftsmanship and design standards are still the best in the entire mobile phone industry. In an era when even the iPhone is criticized for its ugly design, it shows how high people's aesthetic requirements for mobile phones are. But you basically won't hear anyone say that Sony's mobile phones are ugly, especially Sony's Xperia Z series models.

But the problem is that after several generations of flagships starting from Xperia Z, including Z2, Z3 and Z3+, Sony has not made any significant changes in the design of this series. Even the most beautiful girls may get tired of it after seeing it too much, let alone a mobile phone.

In addition, Sony pursues a dual-flagship strategy, that is, launching two flagship models within a year. However, due to the short interval between the two flagships, subsequent products are more like improved versions of the previous generation. Take the recent Xperia Z4 as an example. The appearance is almost exactly the same as the Xperia Z3, but the specifications of the processor and front camera have been improved internally. The appearance has not changed much, and the improvement is not obvious enough. It is difficult for consumers to be willing to pay for it, especially when mobile phones are updated so quickly.

Currently, the phones that are generally recognized to have the best camera performance on the market are Samsung's Galaxy S6 and Apple's iPhone 6 Plus. The camera modules of these two phones are both from Sony. Sony's advantage in the field of mobile imaging is very obvious, and it almost monopolizes the camera business of all current high-end smartphones.

Ironically, although Sony uses the best camera modules for its phones, Samsung and Apple's phones are much better than Sony's own products in terms of photo performance. Sony really needs to reflect on the coordination and cooperation capabilities between its departments.

As the saying goes, good wine needs no bush, but this is not true in today's mobile phone industry. In this era of explosive news, if the best product is not marketed well, it will soon be overshadowed by new product information. In China, except for some first-tier cities where you can see Sony advertisements, you can hardly see Sony mobile phone billboards, and even many cities don't even have Sony mobile phone counters. Sony is even less common on traditional TV and paper media.

Take Samsung as an example. The marketing and publicity expenses of one of Samsung's flagship phones is equivalent to the publicity expenses of all Sony Mobile's products in a year. Samsung's success is absolutely inseparable from a successful marketing model. Samsung can launch "fast, accurate and ruthless" advertisements at the right time. Samsung can often take advantage of the shortcomings of the iPhone at the first time and compete in a misaligned position to tell consumers why you need Samsung.

Samsung also has two very classic marketing cases:

At the 2014 Academy Awards, host Ellen Degeneres used a Samsung phone to take a selfie with a group of celebrities, which attracted widespread attention. The photo taken by the Samsung phone was retweeted more than 2 million times overnight, far exceeding the old record of Obama's tweet announcing his victory in the election.

Not long ago, in the boxing championship match between Pacquiao and Mayweather, which was hailed as the "Fight of the Century", Pacquiao took out a Samsung Galaxy S6 phone to take a selfie in front of billions of viewers at the scene and on TV before the appearance, instantly making the audience in front of TV around the world familiar with this phone.

This kind of product placement is very effective and more influential than traditional advertising, and it has a viral effect that money can't buy. Sony is really far behind Samsung in this regard.

Conclusion

Sony's design, content and technology are not enough to make its mobile phone business return to the public's attention. What Sony needs is a transformation from the inside out. If the next Sony flagship cannot make a difference in Sony Mobile's situation, I'm afraid we will never see a mobile phone called Sony again.

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.