The era of Sony launching new smartphones every quarter ended a few years ago. Sony Mobile now only launches 3 smartphones per year with no more tablets and more focus on flagship models. This year Sony will no longer manufacture its own phones, causing issues after the launch of the Xperia 1 VII. This created rumors that Sony would withdraw from the smartphone business.
But when announcing their financial report yesterday, Sony Group CFO Sue Lin said that the smartphone business is still important to the company with communication technology used for more than just making phone calls. He added that communication technology is a very important technology that Sony has been nurturing for a long time.
Regarding the Xperia 1 VII issue, he apologized to the affected customers. An issue with the software caused the device to turn off on its own and then cannot be turned back on. Affected customers have been given replacement devices. This issue also caused the launch of the Xperia 1 VII in Malaysia to be postponed until today.