Sony rediscovers its mojo … with a smartphone

SONY’S new Xperia Z1 is, among other things, waterproof.

There was a time when a revolutionary device called the Walkman was the first and last word when it came to portable music. Long before the invention of the iPod, the must-have music player that wowed users all over the world was a rudimentary cassette tape player with headphones.

And its brand was Sony.

As recent as the ’90s, the iconic Japanese brand was associated with everything cool and high tech, from the world’s best color television sets to video cameras and players to home entertainment systems. Sony was the best electronics consumer brand in the world, bar none.

But along with success came complacency, and then a strong challenge from South Korean brands like Samsung and LG. A decade later, Sony had lost its mojo and was reeling on the ropes while its rivals took the world by storm.

But now, Sony is fighting back, and one of the first salvos it fired in its bid to regain its lost supremacy is in the area of smartphones, where its erstwhile South Korean rival presently rules.

IT ALSO works with a smartwatch.

“I’ve never seen the company as unified as it is today,” says Matthew Lang who is the Sony’s regional head for its mobile communications business. “I think Sony has really faced up to the future and has a very clear strategy in place, that is built around digital imaging, gaming, with mobile computing and mobile devices in the middle. It’s a very clear three-     pillar formation.”

According to Lang, the Tokyo-based electronics giant has implemented a “One Sony” business strategy which calls for the leveraging of all its assets and strengths, from music and film content to technologies in gaming, imaging, television and audio.

“We’ve talked a long, long time about bringing that all together,” he says. “And I honestly feel, myself, that the company is now much more unified and much more focused on doing that.”

Enter the Sony Xperia Z1—the latest device in the company’s thrust to revitalize a brand that was once synonymous with innovation and producing jaw-dropping devices.

Launched last month globally, and made available last week in the Philippines, the Xperia Z1 is a premium waterproof smartphone that boasts of one of the best cameras in the market (leveraging off Sony’s strength in camera technology).

SONY aims to capture the No. 3 spot in the smartphone market.

The company is hoping that buyers would be drawn to the Xperia Z1’s 21-megapixel camera, which also has many bells and whistles found only in a high-end point-and-shoot camera.

The combination of these technologies delivers the same level of quality and performance as a conventional compact digital camera in a slim, waterproof smartphone. And Sony says that independent testing has confirmed that Xperia Z1 provides “the best overall image quality of all leading smartphones.”

More importantly, the performance of the smartphone’s camera can be boosted further by attaching Sony’s new QX100 lens onto it, thus improving image quality to rival those taken with DSLRs.

“Some consumers want to do more, and not necessarily carry around a separate camera,” Lang says. “[Having attachable lenses] is being a little ahead of the curve.”

“We recognize there’s going to be a massive change in the industry,” he adds, predicting that compact cameras will soon become obsolete, with users migrating to both ends of the imaging pole: DSLRs and smartphones.

“It’s clear to everybody that digital compact cameras, as an industry, is declining,” he says. “We can see where the numbers are going. It’s being cannibalized by smartphones. And I think what Sony is showing is that it’s still capable of great innovation in developing and reacting to the situation in the market.”

THE XPERIA has impressive camera features.

At the same time, the smartphone also capitalizes on the company’s other strengths, touting itself as a music player (where one can download Sony Music content), a video player (which can access Sony’s films) and a gaming platform (through Sony’s PlayStation system).

With the Android-powered Xperia Z1, Lang says the company hopes to capture the No. 3 spot in the multibillion dollar smartphone market (behind Samsung and Apple), including in the Philippines which has very demanding, tech-savvy consumers.

So will Sony succeed in dislodging the Samsung behemoth and recapturing the top market spot it once held?

“Sony is an old well-established company that’s been around for 60 years. It’s been through some well documented situations over the last few years.” Lang says. “I’m a 23-year veteran of the company, so I’ve seen a lot of what we’ve been through.”

He explains that the company has a clear strategy and a clear battle plan, which it is busy executing.

“We’ve delivered strong year-on-year growth in smartphones. We’re selling more and more smartphones each quarter, and obviously the revenue that we’re bringing in is greater,” Lang says. “We’re more profitable, as an overall company for the first time in a long time.”

And will the market ever see Sony return to its days of Walkman-type, jaw-dropping innovation?

Lang is emphatic: “Yes, I think the engineers have rediscovered their mojo. The innovation is coming through. The excitement within the company is palpable. You can feel that people are feeling energized, empowered. We’re coming back.”