Sony returns to smartphones but faces challenges
Sony Corp. declared a return to the smartphone business on Sunday, unveiling its first smartphones under the Sony brand, but warned the group's painful transition would not be as fast as rebranding.
Kazuo Hirai is due to formally take over as Sony CEO on April 1, replacing Howard Stringer. Hirai said that while some management changes had already been identified there was still a long way to go to "explain to everybody who's doing what."
"People have these lofty expectations that we're going to have all the answers to all the problems that plague the world on April 1," Hirai said in an interview at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress. "We're not going to have that." The once-stellar consumer electronics brand is heading for what it has warned would be a much bigger-than-expected $2.9 billion annual loss, its fourth in a row.
