Sony’s Kaz Hirai says no plans to quit smartphones; looks to the “next paradigm shift of communication”

Sony’s CEO and President Kazuo Hirai recently spoke to AFR revealing some interesting points about the company’s positioning in smartphones. Kaz Hirai confirmed that it expected to remain in the smartphone business going forward, as well as being commercially viable. Hirai’s says that Sony needs to stay in the smartphone game, to ensure it can be involved in the next “paradigm shift of communication”.

“A paradigm shift in how we communicate with each other occurs every 10 years or so, but if we don’t remain currently in the business then we don’t get to play or we don’t get to create the next paradigm shift of communication, we basically throw a towel in and lose all the relationships with our retailers and carriers around the world”, said Mr Hirai.



“If we did that then whatever idea we may come up with, we’re not going to be able to bring to market quickly enough,” he continued.

Sony is instead developing and testing other types of experimental projects, hedging its bets for the next big thing in communication. “We have created a different model that’s very unique, and it’s not just confined to electronics, it’s actually anything that we can think of,” Mr Hirai said.

Hirai went on to say that “the employees understand that we have a culture of pushing the envelope of challenging the status quo and that it’s OK to be challengers and to come up with new ideas. I think that for a while we kind of lost that mojo, and when I became president I wanted to make sure that we talk about that, but at the same time reinforce it with actions from the top that show employees that it’s OK to innovate and take calculated risks.”

Arguably, if you wanted to be critical, one could argue that Sony needs to take more risks on the mobile front to try to regain lost market share. How do you feel that Sony could compete more effectively once again? Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks Diogo!