Sony Mobile Communications, in view of its unsatisfactory smartphone sales performance, has cut its smartphone business personnel by 15% and adjusted operational strategies by focusing on high-end models to seek profitability instead of global market share, and the adjustment is likely to result in gradually decreased orders released to Taiwan-based ODMs, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.

The sales performance for Sony Mobile high-end smartphones in the US, China and Europe markets have not been good, while sales of entry-level and mid-range models in emerging markets are lacking as well due to less competitive performance-price ratios than models launched by China-based vendors, the sources indicated.

Consequently, Sony Mobile has downwardly adjusted its target smartphone shipments for fiscal year 2014 from 50 million units to 43 million units and given up on some of entry-level and mid-range models under development, the sources said.

While all international smartphone vendors except Apple have stepped into the entry-level and mid-range market segments, Sony Mobile is quite unlikely to be competitive with Apple and Samsung Electronics in the global market for high-end smartphones, the sources pointed out.

If Sony Mobile's quarterly shipments remain at 10 million smartphones in the future, it will drop out of the global 10 largest vendors, the sources said.