Ina Fried reporting for re/code:

After years of declining market share, Sony has quietly moved its U.S. phone operations from Atlanta to the San Francisco Bay Area and named a new leader.

The first surprise to me is that Sony Mobile had their offices in Atlanta. No wonder they’ve been unable to make any big gains in the US when they don’t even operate where all the action is. So why Atlanta?

Sony’s mobile business, then a joint venture with Ericsson, set up shop in Atlanta in 2009 to be closer to AT&T’s mobile business. At that time, the company still had about 4 percent of the U.S. market.

I couldn’t think of a more short-sighted reason than this. In a world where carriers are becoming less and less important and you can purchase phones with SIM cards that are capable of connecting to multiple carriers, Sony saw fit then to cozy up to carriers, likely as a way to break into the US market. Ironically, Sony has enjoyed a near non-existent relationship with US carriers, including AT&T.

So who is in charge of the company’s US operations now? Those details after the jump.

According to Fried,

Kunihiko Shiomi, who had been head of U.S. development, took over as president in January

He has replaced Ravi Nookala, who has:

returned to Canada and is now CEO of Burnaby, B.C.-based Glentel, which runs a range of wireless service businesses. Nookala worked at Sony Canada before being named to run U.S. operations in January 2013

Not sure what position Glentel is in when they want to hire the company head who was handed a household brand name and couldn’t do anything with it. To be fair, we don’t know the cards Nookala was dealt and how many of the problems Sony Mobile in the US faces are due to their management structure that is tied to Japan. Most recently, Sony announced that PlayStation, which struggled during the PS3 era thanks to its strong Japanese ties, will be moving all of its future development to the US. This should come as little surprise, as PS4, which was heavily developed in the US, has been doing gangbusters for Sony.

US fans know this all too well, but:

the company has had on-and-off relationships with AT&T and T-Mobile but has struggled to get significant share. In recent years, it has been forced to sell its devices in the comparatively smaller “unlocked” market for those willing to bring their own devices. Sony’s smartphone share in the U.S., meanwhile, has been below 1 percent since 2012, according to IDC.

Curiously Fried ends the article with:

Sony’s U.S. phone operations could be in danger of shutting down altogether. Executives have said that it may exit the business if it can’t break even this year.

but we all know by now that profits are something that Sony Mobile actually has now. Perhaps worst of all is that Kunihiko Shiomi took over in January and no one had noticed till now. Talk about a zombie company and a need for revitalization.

Discuss:

Do you think the move to SF will help Sony Mobile in the US?

[Via re/code]