Sony Group, the largest supplier of camera sensors for smartphones, has changed its forecasts regarding the expected timing of the recovery of consumer demand in the market of mobile phones.
The corporation believes that the normalization of the situation in the smartphone market in terms of sales volumes will normalize no earlier than 2024. The supplier’s forecast has changed against the background of a deterioration in the assessment of the level of demand for devices of this category and further prospects for the dynamics of this indicator in China and the United States.
The conglomerate, which is a kind of technically functional integral space where entertainment and electronics coexist, initially published a forecast of an improvement in the global smartphone market in terms of consumer activity in the second half of 2023.
In terms of its expectations for the near future, the corporation shares the position of Apple and other technology companies about stable low demand. According to market participants, the current state of affairs is largely a consequence of China’s attempts to reboot the economic system, which suffered as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and related restrictions that negatively affected the manufacturing sector.
By the end of July, deflation was recorded in China. Monetary and fiscal support has been strengthened in the country, even though signs of a temporary decline in prices may cancel out any growth incentives. The consumer price index decreased by 0.3% year-on-year. The cost of goods of local producers demonstrates the dynamics of decline for the tenth month in a row. In July, this indicator decreased by 4.4% compared to the price level of a year ago.
Sony is currently the world’s largest supplier of sensors that are used in iPhone cameras and other devices. On Wednesday, August 9, the corporation revised its revenue forecast for 2023 upward. The prospects of activity in the games and entertainment market in terms of financial performance were highly appreciated. Against this background, the smartphone sector is an environment of limited processes.
Apple, the well-being of Sony partly depends on the results of its activities, has faced the problem of the longest decline in sales over the past few decades. This state of affairs is a reflection and consequence of the global deterioration of the situation in the entire industry. The demand for smartphones, computers, and tablets in terms of the ability to promote the growth of manufacturers’ businesses is in the negative zone.
Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony’s senior general manager for finance, told analysts during a briefing that the pace of recovery of the Chinese smartphone market was lower than the rate of improvement that was initially expected. He also stressed that conditions in the similar US market are deteriorating.
The General Manager of Finance noted that the corporation expected positive dynamics in the second half of 2023, but the reality turned out to be less positive and more difficult in terms of the formation and implementation of recovery factors. Now Sony predicts that the situation in the smartphone market will improve no earlier than next year. This wording means that, according to the corporation, there are no reliable guarantees that 2024 will be more positive for mobile phone manufacturers. Sony’s forecast is a preliminary assumption, not a confident statement, which is not facilitated by external conditions and circumstances.
