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Sony Mobile releases new phone in Taiwan, aims to topple Samsung
2015/05/27 20:06:34
Taipei, May 27 (CNA) The mobile division of Japan's Sony Corp. launched its newest Xperia Z flagship smartphone in Taiwan on Wednesday, aiming to unseat Samsung Electronics Co. as the top vendor in the country's high-end Android phone market.
The Xperia Z3+ is an upgrade from the Xperia Z3, which was launched last September. The lighter and slimmer waterproof Z3+ features a 5.2-inch full-HD display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core 64 bit processor, a 20.7-megapixel main camera and up to two days of battery life.
Sony Mobile will kick off a number of promotional campaigns when the Z3+ goes on sale locally next month, as part of the company's efforts to gain a 40 percent share by sales value in the above-NT$15,000 (US$490) market by July, said Jonathan Lin (林志遠), general manager of Sony Mobile's Taiwan branch.
If Sony Mobile succeeds in reaching that goal, the company will rank as the top Android phone vendor in Taiwan's high-end market, Lin said at the product launch.
The Z3 was the bestselling smartphone in Taiwan in April with a 28 percent local market share in terms of units sold, he said.
According to market research statistics, Samsung remains the top vendor of high-end Android phones in Taiwan, holding a 35 percent market share by sales value, followed by Sony Mobile with roughly a 30 percent share.
Sony Mobile is continuing its business revival plan through cost savings in research and development and longer smartphone release cycles, as it is looking to achieve profitability next fiscal year and boost its operating margin to 3-5 percent by fiscal year 2017.
The cost-saving exercises came after Sony replaced the head of its mobile division last October as the company wrote down the valuation of the business by a whopping US$1.59 billion in the fiscal second quarter of 2014.
That move was followed by 800 job cuts in Sony Mobile's China operations and layoffs of 1,000 employees at its research and development unit in Sweden, which were announced in early March.
(By Jeffrey Wu)
