Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida has called its smartphone business “indispensable” amidst investor concerns over the loss-making side of the company, indicating Sony will continue making phones despite a push to close the side of the business down. However, in its recent corporate strategy meeting, Sony showed it will focus on only four markets internationally going forward.
Yoshida is quoted as saying smartphones are “a component necessary to make our hardware brand sustainable,” according to Reuters, and added that, “younger generations no longer watch TV. Their first touchpoint is [the] smartphone.” Sony considers the smartphone an entertainment device, which fits in with its PlayStation brand, televisions, and movie-making arm of the company.
Smartphones cost Sony $879 million in the last financial year, after the company sold 6.5 million phones globally for a 1% market share. These heavy losses haven’t deterred Sony, though, and it’s clear from the CEO’s words that smartphones will remain part of the company’s business for the foreseeable future. There are changes in where Sony will sell its phones, though.
Sony now has four “focus regions” around the world — Japan, Europe, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. On a map showing where Sony’s mobile business will continue, it lists the U.S. and Canada as having, “no operator business,” while also indicating it will not concentrate on smartphone sales in Australia, South America, and the rest of Asia outside the regions mentioned above. In addition to this, Sony has ended production in its factory in China, reduced its reliance on outsourced design in Japan, and altered its corporate management structure.
The news comes after Sony Mobile’s vice president of marketing, Don Mesa, told Digital Trends earlier this year the business was “undergoing a lot of change,” and that, “every component of our business has been touched.” Mesa was speaking ahead of Mobile World Congress, where Sony launched a series of new smartphones with new designs and some stand-out new features. He stated these phones — which included the Xperia 10 and the Xperia 10 Plus — would show the direction the company was headed in.
The flagship new device from Sony, the Xperia 1, has yet to be released but is available for pre-order in the U.K. and other regions.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.