Sony was once a major player in the mobile market, but is facing pressure from a few vendors that are beginning to dominate the Android space. In a sense, Sony faces only half of the problem that Research in Motion Ltd. does -- its phones run on a popular platform, but it has too many competitors. RIM, by contrast, has to prove that it can design competitive hardware and that its new platform will hold up against iOS and Android.
Sony still has plenty of other valuable lines of business, but losing out in the mobile market is a bitter pill to swallow:
"Sony Mobile is going to have a tough time getting traction in the market place, but it is not going to go away because it is such an important part of the Sony conglomerate and its multi-screen strategy," said industry analyst Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight.