Sony Mobile Will Soon Hide Behind New Combined Electronics Business

There is no shortage of critics that have long considered Sony's smartphone business to be a business failure. Despite its rather bullish attitude, the company is no fool and knows too well that things aren't looking good for its Mobile Communications arm. To its credit, it is taking steps to remedy that situation but its latest strategy is drawing criticism on how it's trying to hide its ailing smartphone business behind more successful ones.

Formally, Sony will be combining its Imaging Products & Solutions (IP&S) Business, Home Entertainment & Sound (HE&S) Business, and Mobile Communications (MC) Business into a single Electronics Products & Solutions (EP&S) Business. What this rather wordy statement simply means is that it will be treating its camera, TV, and mobile businesses as a single unit. Depending on how you look at it, it could be good or bad for Sony's smartphones.

Analysts see it as a way for Sony to hide the true state of its mobile business. It will be reporting numbers from a single business rather than detailing how well the cameras, TVs, and smartphones do on their own. This is a common strategy companies employ when they don't want to disclose how bad things are.

Sony, however, is spinning it as better cooperation between three businesses that use components from one another. It was revealed that internal rivalry is largely to blame for the Xperia phones' lackluster performance in the camera department, despite Sony's expertise in imaging. That said, Sony cameras and TVs don't seem to have that problem from the Mobile division.

This change will take place on April 1, but it's no April Fools joke. Whether this "realignment" will actually help its ailing business probably won't be seen until after a few months but it could very well be the writing on the wall that many of Sony's critics are waiting for.