It’s not a good time to be either LG or Sony. Both companies have recently reported declines in smartphone sales. LG’s sales for the most recent quarter declined 21% compared to its performance this time last year, while Sony has an even worse time. Worse to the tune of 30% fewer smartphones sold for the quarter, year-on-year.

According to LG, “slow sales of 4G premium models and intense market competition in mass-tier products” were to blame for the company’s drop in performance. We’re not sure about the first point there but the company’s not wrong on the second. The high-end smartphone market is hugely competitive and some companies are going to fall behind. Sony, on the other hand, has been planning for the decline.

Signs and portents

LG has been flagging for some time now, with its most recent flagships failing to make much of an impact. It hasn’t helped that the LG G8 — in the shape of the G8S ThinQ — rolled out a little later in South Africa than we would have liked either.

Sony may be having a decent-ish time on the PlayStation front (and even there, the company has cut sales forecasts) but its smartphone division has been battling for some time. Scaling back to mid-range devices didn’t help matters and the company’s attempt at taking on the premium bracket this year doesn’t look great. Besides the (still-incoming-to-SA) Xperia 1, Sony’s phones may become hard to locate in some countries, and even here at home Sony is cutting marketing budgets.

It’s perhaps too soon to predict doom and gloom for the two smartphone makers but this is certainly a trend to watch. After all, former phone giants Nokia and Blackberry were once bulletproof. Nowadays, they’re shadows of their former selves. If that’s not a cautionary tale for smartphone execs, we’re not sure what is.

Source: The Verge