Sony is reportedly is cutting up to half its smartphone workforce as sales shrink, in what could mean the company's retreat from the smartphone buisness, in the face of stiff competition.

Nikkei reports that Sony plan could see up to 2,000 of the total 4,000 jobs cut by March 2020, part of an efort to reduce fixed costs in the smartphone business.

According to the report, Sony will limit smartphone sales in Southeast Asia and other areas to focus on Europe and China.

The global smartphone industry suffers one of the severest downturns of recent years. Sony's share of the smartphone market has fallen sharply in recent years -- from more than 3% in 2010, according to the research portal Statistica -- to less than 1% currently.

Sony only expects to sell 6.5 million handsets in its fiscal 2018, half the number it sold a year earlier and just one-sixth the number it sold five years ago.