Sony restructures for Europe
- Added:
- Mar 30, 2001
Strategically, the move appears to be aimed towards the UK and Europe, as both mobile and broadband are currently real and widely unresolved issues here.
Brian Gammage, Gartner analyst, said: “I see the mobile section of this as being a statement of intent - not to get into the already mature European handset market, but to position for GPRS and 3G technologies. The 2.5G and onwards technology market is still very much up for grabs.
“The standards for both broadband access and mobile computing are still not fully defined in Europe - unlike the US, where solutions are and have already been rolled out.”
The Japanese electronics giant said it would increase the number of its major divisions, from five to seven. Sony's seven network companies are: Digital Telecommunications, Mobile network, Broadband solutions, Semiconductors, Core technologies, Displays and Home.
Sony's profits fell in the last three months of 2000, hit by production glitches on its flagship PlayStation2 game console and the ailing Japanese economy, causing it to halve its full-year net profit forecast.