Everyone has been screaming at them to stop making smartphones but they had to keep losing money to learn.
And for those saying "what a shame, they make great smartphones", you are clearly out not a gadget freak 
SONY first multiple attempts at making smartphones were disastrous. Too many Xperias and all of them were behind the competition in Specs, cameras and software support. Then the Z line was introduced 2 years ago, that was one of their first good smartphones but it definitely wasn't great. Z3/4 are among the best now but it's a tough market, you don't get to screw up too many times and for years and expect consumers to keep coming back. There are other smartphones manufacturers that have been consistently great ,with a lot less mishaps on their smartphone-making journey, that deserve to do better than SONY, and better than they are doing right now, yet they are not. So yeah, no sympathy, good luck somewhere else, SONY.
