After much rumor and speculation floating around over the last couple of days, Sony has now confirmed in a statement that its Z series of flagship smartphones is now dead. The Z line has “reached its culmination,” according to the Japanese company, and it’s now time for a “new chapter and evolution” in its product strategy…
Leading up to Apple’s “Hey Siri”-themed press event today, Siri has been giving out a lot of unhelpful announcement hints to users who say “Hey Siri, give me a hint”. One of these was a binary code, which when decoded only revealed the word “Gotcha”. It goes without saying that if you want some real hints about what Apple’s going to announce, all you need to do is to read Mark’s roundup.
But Sony, the company that just last week unveiled the world’s first 4K smartphone, the Xperia Z5 Premium, has taken to Twitter to taunt the Cupertino-based company. Also using the familiar binary, Sony wrote “01000111 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 00101110”. Converted to text? That’s “Game on.”
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Having just launched its latest super mid-range smartphones, Sony will turn its attention to the next flagship launch which is surely just around the corner. If a recent leak holds any truth, the next Xperia could jump on the fingerprint sensor bandwagon and incorporate the feature in to its side-mounted power button.
An image tweeted by Vizileaks shows what it claims to be the next generation Xperia Z and Z Compact separated by an iPhone 5s. For the sake of saving confusion, we’ll call them the Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact for now.
What’s really interesting about these images is that they clearly show fingerprint recognition setup screens on the display. The closest device (Z5) shows the progress icon, which isn’t too dissimilar to those we’ve seen on other phones. Look at the furthest phone and you can see a tutorial screen clearly showing the user how to register the fingerprint; by placing their thumb on the power button.
This power button seems vastly different in design to previous Xperia phones. It’s a large, pill-shaped button rather than a tiny, fiddly round button like the one featured on the Z3.
[tweet https://twitter.com/vizileaks/status/628208495758852096 align=’center’]
Like previous iterations of Xperia, it would appear that the next pair will feature very similar form factors to every other Android-based Sony smartphone in recent history. Although unsurprising, that is a little disappointing.
Sony announced a new Xperia Z at IFA last year, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the company chose to refresh its lineup once again at the Berlin tech show. It would fit in with the manufacturer’s release schedule, although there’s no guarantee Sony will choose to do so this year.
Emails found among the documents recently stolen from Sony by hackers have revealed what looks to be concept art for an unannounced smartphone. The “XPERIA Z Fourth Generation,” seen above, was pitched by Sony executives for product placements in the recently announced 24th James Bond flick “Spectre.”
The executives haggle over pricing for the placement of the phone, questioning whether they should pay the full $5 million for star Daniel Craig to use the phone, or settle for actor Ben Whishaw’s much cheaper “Q” to show it off.
Just like Motorola, NVIDIA and HTC, Sony is hopping on the Android 5.0 bandwagon. In a blog post today, the company pledged to bring Lollipop to all of its “premium Z series” devices.
Photo: digitaltrends.com
Strong smartphone sales were about the only good news for Sony investors in today’s earnings release, mobile sales in the last quarter up 39.3 percent year-on-year, led by its flagship Xperia Z.
Cameras, TVs, gaming and movie divisions all lost money, leading the company to slash its annual profit forecast by 40 percent to $300M …
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Sony’s mobile division has posted a profit of $60M in Q2 after making a $28M loss in the same quarter last year, reports the New York Times.
Sony reported a “significant increase” in quarterly sales of smartphones, to 9.6 million from 7.4 million in the period a year earlier. Sony said average selling prices had risen as well, helping the mobile division post a profit of $60 million, after a loss of $28.1 million in the year-ago period.
Its early launch of its flagship Xperia Z handset ahead of launches by Samsung and HTC was likely a significant factor, with export numbers assisted by a weak Yen .
Android Central reports that Sony is the first Android manufacturer to commit to updating devices to Android 4.3.
The Japanese company says it can confirm that the Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia SP and Xperia Z Ultra will all get upgrades to Android 4.3, though no specific update timetable is offered.
In addition, Sony says it’s looking at upgrading some of its Android 4.1 devices directly to 4.3, leapfrogging 4.2 entirely.
The Xperia ZR and Tablet Z are still scheduled to get 4.2 next month, with a later update to 4.3.
T-Mobile will begin to sell the Xperia Z on July 17th for $100 with a 24-month payment commitment of $20 per month. The carrier originally announced its plan to carry the device back in June, but without any specific pricing or release information.
Specs will be the same as the international model, which include a 5-inch 1080p display with Sony’s Mobile Bravia engine, a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, a 13MP rear-facing camera, and a water and dust resistant design. It will also carry support for T-Mobile’s LTE network.
Xperia® Z from Sony. T-Mobile will be the exclusive U.S. wireless company to offer Sony’s flagship water-resistant Android™-powered smartphone to customers this summer.2 The Xperia Z will be available for $99.99 down, with 24 equal monthly device payments of $20 for well-qualified buyers for 0 percent APR on approved credit3 through T-Mobile retail stores and select retailers, as well as online at http://www.T-Mobile.com starting July 17. On July 16, customers can also pre-order the device online from the same website and receive a free Sony Wireless Bluetooth Speaker gift with purchase (while supplies last). Customers may also purchase the device beginning today at any of the 38 U.S. Sony Store locations, including the flagship store in New York, or online at www.Sony.com/xperiaz/tmobile and will be eligible to receive the free Sony speaker as a gift with purchase (while supplies last).
According to an image obtained by TmoNews, T-Mobile is gearing up to launch the Sony Xperia Z on July 17th. Unfortunately, the image lacks any details about pricing, and with T-Mobile’s new UnCarrier plans, it’s hard to speculate.
For those unfamiliar with the Xperia Z, it’s packing a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, a 5-inch 1080p display with Sony’s Mobile Bravia engine, a 13MP rear-facing camera, and a design resistant to both water and dust. The device has been available unlocked for sometime now, but T-Mobile will be the first United States carrier to sell it.
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After a few months of speculation and rumors, T-Mobile has finally announced that it will carry Sony’s Xperia Z flagship. While no specific pricing or availability was announced, the carrier said it will launch in the “coming weeks.” It will be available in black, as well as purple for a limited time.
Specs are the same as the international version, which include a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, a 5-inch 1080p display with Sony’s Mobile Bravia engine, a 13MP rear-facing camera, and a water and dust resistant design. It will also carry support for T-Mobile up and coming LTE network.
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