How Sony Could Win (Some Of) the U.S. Smartphone Market
I’ve been using my Sony phone (a Z1 Compact) for about a year, and I’m continually shocked by two things:
1) How great this phone is, and
2) That no one else seems aware of its existence.
Sony could be a solid performer in the American smartphone marketplace, but instead it focuses on Japan and Europe, leaving its U.S. division — like its Android rivals — to get swamped by Apple, with the California giant taking a full 92% of smartphone profits in the first quarter. It’s easy for Americans to write-off Sony phones as boring, but they’ve already proven their appeal elsewhere: In Japan, for instance, Sony already has 12.3% of the market. Now, no one’s suggesting that Sony could capture Apple-level profits here in the U.S., but they could at least be a Samsung-level player (at 15% of smartphone profits and about 29% of U.S. market share) if they made a few very affordable changes. Here’s my take on what those are:
1) Marketing
Sony phones pack a ton of great features, from magnetic charging to waterproof design, but there’s one that stands out above all: Battery life. Ask any iPhone user for their number one complaint, and you’ll hear it: Their battery is dead by lunch. They WISH someone made a phone with a battery that could last all day. And here’s what’s crazy: That phone exists. The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, for instance, has a battery that can last a full 2 days, but Sony seems downright opposed to telling U.S. customers. This should be their all-out, banner claim: Our phone’s battery is mindblowingly awesome.
Another great feature to which the world is oblivious: Hi-res audio. Sony phones can play damn-fine audio that makes other phones sound like crap. Given that users dish out top dollar for headphones and streaming services that (claim to) provide top-notch audio, it’s insane that Sony doesn’t talk this feature up. Their best bet? Pay will.i.am to mix a song on an Xperia device and put him on every damn channel talking up how great the sound is. “But you just have to hear it on a Sony,” he’ll implore.
2) Content
Video content delivery is wildly valuable, as evidenced by the studios and streaming services frantically trying to cut each other out and profit more. Netflix and Amazon are making their own content. Fox and Disney created their own streaming service, Hulu. And Sony? Sony has Crackle.
You could be forgiven for forgetting that Crackle exists. Hell, even Sony forgot it existed last year. Maybe it’s poor marketing, or maybe it’s because the viewing experience on Crackle is a hellish nightmare of yesteryear: Movies are repeatedly interrupted by ads. It’s a nauseating practice that should be unthinkable in 2015, but hey, the world is a terrible place. You know what’s not terrible? The movies and TV shows available on Crackle, with titles including Bruno, Ghostbusters, and Seinfeld. That’s right: Seinfeld, the show that Hulu just paid upwards of $700,000 per episode to obtain. Crackle has had it for YEARS, and the fact that you don’t know this is proof that someone should be fired today.
So how could Sony use this content to leverage its smartphone business? By making content-viewing on Crackle ad-free if you’re watching on a Sony device. (This could help out some of its other hardware as well. Its troubled TV business? Sure. Tablets? Why not. But smartphones? Definitely.)
Sony is the only player who could control content from its production all the way through to its display on an audience’s screen. Just imagine what Netflix or Amazon would do with that power. Augmented reality? Social TV? Offline viewing? Sony’s ownership of production, delivery, and hardware should make it wildly powerful, but it squanders its strength.
3. More Carriers
This one’s obvious. Currently T-Mobile and Verizon are the only U.S. carriers offering Sony phones, though Sony is reportedly working to change that.
Bottom Line
Sony makes great phones which could do well in the U.S. without any major hardware changes, save for the those demanded by new carriers. Its domination of the content production and delivery process should give it superpowers, but it could capture a larger share of the U.S. market based on its current offerings alone. Until it does, we’re all doomed to a life without free streaming Ghostbusters.
