Sony's Vaio Laptops On Sale At A Singapore Mall
A giant banner promotes Sony's Vaio laptops at Sim Lim Square, in Singapore March 3, 2009. Sim Lim, a chaotic six-storey mall selling computers, electronic goods and cameras, is one of Singapore main electronic hubs. Reuters/David Loh

This could very well be the end of an era. Japanese electronics giant Sony – known widely for its TVs and inventing the first portable music player Walkman – might reportedly exit the highly saturated TV and smartphone businesses.

The statement pointing to the possibility of the consumer electronics major pulling from its defining TV market segment was made by the CEO Kazuo Hirai on Wednesday, according to a Gamespot report. Both TV and smartphone sectors have been saturated by Korean and Chinese players who have managed to edge the Japanese manufacturer from its dominant position. This is especially true for the TV segment, which used to be Sony's bread-and-butter offering in the glory days.

"The strategy starting from the next business year will be about generating profit and investing for growth," said CEO Kazuo Hirai. When asked about the faltering TV and smartphone business, Hirai replied that he wouldn't "rule out considering an exit strategy" from those segments. Sony aims to fast track progress by giving its subsidiaries greater autonomy towards making independent business decisions.

Although Hirai hasn't confirmed the move to exit the TV and smartphone business, he still considers it a viable option to shore up the company's dwindling profits. The idea is to consolidate the company's resources towards the more profitable ventures, which happen to include the PlayStation brand. The CEO hinted at the impending move after revealing his aim to improve the company's operating profits by an ambitious 25-fold within the next three years, according to Reuters.

Sony's strategy depends on a laser focus on the profitable businesses to achieve the stupendous feat. The PlayStation and camera sensor subsidiaries (apart from the local insurance business) are the only international businesses that make a decent profit for Sony. The company plans to focus on these market segments to achieve the predicted profit of $4.2 billion by 2018.

This development comes a year after Sony announced the sale of its VAIO PC brand to Japan Industrial Partners Inc. The company's willingness to bank on the PlayStation brand doesn't come as a surprise since a recent report by analysts predicts that the PlayStation 4 might be on its way to winning this generation's console war against Microsoft's Xbox One. The PS4 is already in the lead in terms of sales and it has been predicted to replicate the sales success of the PS2, which was by far the company's most successful hardware offering.

To report problems or leave feedback on this article, email: nachiketpg13@hotmail.com.

PlayStation 4 (Credit: Official PlayStation YouTube channel)