Sony has done something LG failed to do… make me a believer again

The history of the smartphone industry is one of upheavals. While Chinese brands have grown and benefited, many legacy phone and technology brands have struggled. Blackberry, HTC and Nokia (without HMD “Revival”) fell by the wayside. LG was the youngest and biggest casualty in the highly competitive market, dropping out after repeatedly trying to revive its range of products.

Sony seems to be the exception to this rather unfortunate trend. Although the brand that gave us the mighty Sony Ericsson W800 shrank for several years at the lower end of the market share tables, the brand is still making an appearance almost two decades later. In fact, at a time when others are closing their stores, the company is on an upward trend.

In the first quarter of 2021, Sony’s wireless division posted its first profit in five years. The company achieved this by lowering production costs and increasing the average sales price of its cell phones. As you can see very clearly from the incredibly high price of $ 1,299 for its latest flagship, the Xperia 1 III. It’s not an entirely rosy picture for Sony, however. The company sells fewer smartphones than ever before in the past decade. Just 2.9 million units in 2020, up from a high of 39.1 million in 2014. But staying in business is important, and against all odds, Sony stays alive.

Niche versus mass market attractiveness

The comparison between LG and Sony is interesting. Both are big, old technology brands that, after initial successes in the cell phone market, have poured countless amounts of money into their ailing cell phone lines over the past decade. LG finally named it the same year Sony finally returned to profitability.

The main difference I can see is that LG has never entirely committed itself to one target market and has released a wide range of different phones, some of which are very experimental to land a hit. With phones ranging from the highly experimental LG G5 and Wing to the incredibly safe but strangely named G7 ThinQ and the fashionable Velvet, it became increasingly difficult to identify who would actually buy LG’s phones year after year.

Meanwhile, Sony looked inward, affirming its roots, and going to great lengths to please its core audience, who had little brains for building a form-breaking smartphone. Sony has figured out what it could be good at instead of completely reinventing itself. It is thanks to LG that its excellent V-series has found a multimedia niche almost similar to that currently occupied by Sony. However, the phones from LG never quite matched the extremely high price of Sony’s Xperia product line.

Sony faced similar issues as LG in the mid to late 2010s, with sales and market share dwindling. The Xperia Z and XZ lines started with a messy semi-annual release schedule. There was also a confusing range of models with very little innovation between them. As you can imagine, the phones received mixed reviews, although Sony received praise for its excellent audio capabilities and IP ratings.

The Xperia range has turned a page with the revamped Xperia 1 series that focused on addressing previous criticisms without straying too far from Sony’s core audience. We even praised the first-gen model for its excellent hardware, even if it was very expensive and imperfect. This is where Sony first introduced its 4K HDR 21: 9 OLED display, triple camera setup, and finally brought back the headphone jack (and expandable memory) to hold hands as the ultimate multimedia machine.

It took a rework or two, but Sony’s flagship Xperia 1 and lower-priced Xperia 5 smartphones have tested quite well. In fact, the 2020 models were some of our top picks for the year and the 2021 Xperia 1 III flagship is the brand’s best performance yet, albeit at an even higher price. Sony’s formula works (finally).

Our verdict: Sony Xperia 1 III review – elegant, intoxicating, expensive

Sony’s own numbers show it doesn’t build phones for mass consumers, but a return to profit suggests it isn’t necessary. Using the industry-leading Bravia display, alpha camera and audio technologies, Sony has shown that it is possible to compete in the highly competitive smartphone market by playing in front of an enthusiastic audience.

As LG, Blackberry and others have demonstrated, tapping into a sustainable niche is not an easy task. Especially since the prevailing wind has caused brands to race down against cost-efficient Chinese manufacturers. But we may see signs that the industry may return to the days when brands were characterized by unique virtues – be it multimedia, games, cameras, or other capabilities.

Sony convinced me. It’s possible to build great smartphones and run a sustainable business without really targeting everyone. Assuming, of course, that you can find a formula that you’re really asking for. It took years to get here so we hope the company can keep up with that.