Sony's freefall continues as just 2 million smartphones were shipped in Q2

With the company’s decline in the smartphone market showing no signs of slowing down, Sony’s latest financial report has revealed that it sold just 2 million smartphone units during the quarter ending June 2018, down from the 3.4 million it shipped a year ago.

Overall, Sony's smartphones generated $1.18 billion in revenue throughout the three-month period, representing a decline of 27% when compared to the previous year. This decline was attributed mainly to a big decrease in sales across Europe and Japan, although the brand’s sales in other markets seemingly remained steady. Moreover, despite the weaker sales, Sony did confirm that it continued to cut costs significantly over the course of the period, something that should help the company’s smartphone unit return to profit in the coming years.

After reporting its Q1 smartphone sales earlier this year, Sony initially forecasted sales of around 10 million smartphone units for the whole of 2018 and total sales of $5.74 billion. However, upon the slightly weaker than expected sales in Q2 2018, Sony has revised its forecast for the rest of the year down to 9 million smartphone shipments and total sales of $5.47 billion.

Moving forward, despite the expected decrease in sales, Sony is expected to continue its cost-cutting efforts throughout the remaining months of 2018. And, while the division isn’t on track to turn a profit this year, the eventual arrival of 5G technologies is expected to provide a big boost to Sony’s smartphone business in 2019.

source: Sony