Recently, Sony Xperia's series of adjustments in the Chinese market have attracted widespread attention. On November 6th, the official Sony Xperia WeChat account entered a self-cancellation and freeze period, with all functions discontinued and previously published articles no longer viewable. Simultaneously, the official Sony Xperia Weibo account has been inactive for six months, with its latest post being a holiday greeting on March 8th of this year. Furthermore, Sony's official Chinese website has removed mobile phone products; smartphones are no longer listed in the product catalog.
All of this seems to suggest that Sony mobile phones have essentially withdrawn from the Chinese mainland market.
Official channels have been completely contracted, indicating a clear exit.
Back in July 2025, Sony's official website announced that due to business adjustments, the original domain name www.sony-xperia.com.cn would be discontinued from August 5th, 2025. Users were redirected to www.sony.com.cn/Xperia to view specifications of some historical models, while more after-sales services were migrated to service.sony.com.cn. However, the webpage specifically listing historical products is currently inaccessible, further fueling speculation that Sony is withdrawing from the Chinese mobile phone market.
Sony's last launched model in China was the Xperia 5 V, unveiled in September 2023 with an initial price of 6499 yuan. Subsequently, Sony's flagship models launched in 2024 and 2025, the Xperia 1 VI and Xperia 1 VII, were neither released in China nor sold in mainland China. This series of actions is seen as a signal of a comprehensive contraction of Sony's mobile phone business in the Chinese market.
The Rise and Fall of Sony Mobile Phones in China: A Glimmer of Fame
Sony's foray into the Chinese mobile phone market can be traced back to 2013, when the Xperia Z1 won considerable praise for its unique waterproof design and excellent imaging capabilities. However, with the rise of domestic Chinese mobile phone brands and intensified market competition, Sony's performance in the Chinese market gradually declined.
Sony phones once won over a loyal user base with their design and audio-visual capabilities. However, their near-stock Android system, coupled with lagging local adaptation, resulted in a poor user experience for some features familiar to Chinese users, creating a certain barrier to entry compared to domestic brands. For a long time, Sony's weak brand presence, limited offline service outlets, and high repair costs have also restricted its market expansion.
According to data released by market research firm Counterpoint Research, in 2024, Apple held nearly half of the market share in Japan, followed by Sharp and Google, while Sony's market share was only 6%, with sales declining by 14% compared to 2023. In the Chinese market, Sony phones are even categorized as "Others," with a negligible market share.
The global market also faces challenges.
Sony's performance in the global market is equally concerning. As early as July of this year, foreign media reported that Sony had partially withdrawn from the European market. In many parts of Europe, including Finland, Sony phones had been removed from offline retail stores, with only a few stores in the UK and Germany still selling them. Sony officially confirmed to Finnish media that sales of Xperia phones in Europe will be restricted, with some regions completely halting sales and only a few areas retaining online sales channels.
In the US market, Sony's official website no longer lists any smartphone products, and its two latest releases were not sold in the US. While facing a precarious situation in overseas markets, Sony is also experiencing a precipitous decline in its home market of Japan. Previously, Bloomberg reported that Sony's smartphone sales in Japan plummeted by 40% in 2023.
Strategic Adjustment, Focusing on Core Businesses
Faced with the difficulties in its mobile phone business, the Sony Group has begun a strategic adjustment. Sony Group President and CEO Hiroki Totoki has emphasized on multiple occasions that the gaming and network services business, the music business, and the film and television business are the core pillars for Sony to realize its "Creative Entertainment Vision." In May 2025, Totoki publicly stated that the entertainment business will account for more than 60% of Sony Group's consolidated sales revenue.
Under this strategic background, the electronics business is only one category in Sony's business portfolio. Shrinking business lines like mobile phones, which are at a competitive disadvantage, may become an inevitable choice for optimizing resource allocation. Despite Sony's CFO stating in the August earnings call that the Xperia smartphone business is "very important," the reality is that the Chinese market has been excluded from Xperia's future plans.
How can Sony turn things around after its smartphone exit?
Although its smartphone business has faded from the market, Sony maintains strong competitiveness in other areas. In the audio field, Sony soundbars topped the industry with a 23.9% market share in the first half of 2025. In the imaging field, Sony not only swept the 2024 JD.com Annual Mirrorless Camera and Lens Gold Awards, but also, as of February 2025, three Sony camera products-the ZV-E10, Alpha 7C II, and Alpha 7 IV-ranked among the top three on JD.com's single-product sales chart.
Meanwhile, Sony's expansion in the mobile field has not stopped. On the one hand, Sony continues to supply core sensors to leading smartphone manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi; on the other hand, Sony is also expanding into new application scenarios such as automotive, opening up new B2B battlefields. The market never dwells on the past; it only moves forward. The exit of Sony Xperia demonstrates the maturity and ruthlessness of the Chinese consumer electronics market: here, pure technological worship is not favored, and only innovation that truly understands users will last.
