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As Sony unveils an 84″ 4K TV, a new Xperia tab and smartphones at IFA overnight, analysts think the former king may be on the road to recovery.
“Sony Mobile has every reason to believe it can edge towards a recovery with its new range of Xperia handsets” Julian Jest, Research Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.

Sony, a former stalwart of the tech industry, has seen its fortunes decline rapidly in the past few years, as the likes of Apple and Samung took over as the cool kids for smartphone and tab technology.

Earlier this month, the Japanese giant reported yet another quarterly loss of $312m with sales of $19.2 billion and plans to cut 10,000 of its workforce globally as it scrambles to cuts costs.

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However, Sony has nonetheless pursued a rapid expansion of smartphones in its Xperia range, announcing three new handsets – the T, V and J – at IFA 2012 – with very impressive specs.

The 4.55″ HD ‘T’ and 4.3″ V are high end devices, are both 4G ready, run on Android 4.04, house whopping 13MP cameras, and 1.5GHz dual-core processors from Qualcomm, while 4″ J is a budget end device on ‘Droid 4.0.

However, the new mobile devices look fairly similar to the recently-released Xperias, with most of the updated features on the inside, which may impact on sales, warns Jest.

Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai’s goal is to provide consumers with a unified Sony content experience across new devices.

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This wish appears to be coming true with new tablets and TVs kitted out with Sony entertianment services.

Also announced at IFA is the Sony 9.4″ Xperia Tablet S, which also offers access to all Sony entertainment services and ditto for its 84″ 4K LCD TV, the XBR-84X90.

Sony is also pushing its in-house services and offering promotional free 60-day trial to its music catalog, a clever move says the analyst, however, it would be even more successful if it also flogged its movies catalog.

“In some ways, Sony’s content is more important than the handset itself. With falling sales in CDs and DVDs, Sony has an opportunity to stem this decline, with subscriptions to its content.”

Initial reaction from the tech industry at IFA to Sony’s new line of products appears to be ‘much improved’ from previous product lines.

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“Sony is an extraordinary company going through extraordinary times,” said Hirai via webcast.

“This company cannot stand still” ….and is “committed to accelerating its turnaround and business growth.”

But analysts also expressed concern about CEO Hirai’s performance at IFA.

“During the press conference, there were times when Kazuo Hirai seemed unsure of his next line.

“There is no such uncertainty with where Sony is heading, however, and judging by the launch of its new devices and integration of content services, it is clear that Sony Mobile is moving in the right direction.”

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