Sony repeats it's focussing on high-end smartphones

Sony has repeated its claim that it'll focus on high-end smartphones.

CEO Kaz Hirai told Bloomberg: "We basically are out of the feature-phone business and in the Android-based smartphone business. We are more in toward the high end of the market as opposed to trying to get into the commoditised portion."

This chimes with what Xperia product marketing manager Stephen Sneeden said a few days ago. So the Sony lot seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet.

Abandon hope, all ye who entry level

Sneeden said last week: "We're ready to be a premium smartphone provider, logically then, at the very entry level is where you lose the 'Sonyness'. And it's where you cannot implement some of these wonderful ideas from Sony at such a low cost, we might leave the very entry tier to some other manufacturers."

Hirai is more direct about his aims. He wants to focus on the high-end to turn a profit from Xperia smartphones. "That's why we are in this business, and that's why we invested heavily in the business," he said. "I believe we still have a lot of room to grow."

While Sony has its sights set on the high-end, Apple is rumoured to be readying a budget version of its iPhone.

Via Bloomberg