Sony, the Japanese technology giant, has been going through a tough period. Its iconic television business is in the doldrums, its iconic Walkman line of products is a no go in front of an iPod and in the smartphone market it’s pretty much irrelevant. Even in gaming it is number three behind Microsoft and Nintendo. But there are signs of the old legendary company Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs admired.
But then many may argue that Sony never really had a crisis of design, they always came up with unique hardware designs at times even outlandish ones like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. But they trailed in terms of pure spec-sheet gloat-power. The Xperia Z is even ahead of the curve in this regard with its 5-inch 1080p display, 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 2GB of RAM and its new 13-megapixel camera that can do HDR on the fly for both video and stills. It is even waterproof and dustproof. So what’s the problem?
Well, Sony has ticked many corners with the Xperia Z. For once the design is not ‘SO’ outlandish that it becomes a difficult dish to swallow for some, it’s simple, elegant and beautiful. It has all the right ingredients so that it can compete well with the upcoming offerings that Samsung, HTC and Nokia have in store and it is even running a relatively new build of Android – Jelly Bean.
But there is always a but. Sony has a frosty history with its consumers with regards to Android updates. It’s camera sensors are used in mobile phones all around the world, including the iPhone 5, but on Sony hardware the same sensors never perform as well as they have done so on hardware made by its rivals. And battery life of some the Sony smartphones has been downright horrendous.
That said, under Kaz Hirai’s leadership we definitely are seeing a return to a more nimble Sony, the legendary consumer electronic company everyone wanted to be like. The Xperia Z is only the tip of the ice-berg. If one takes a look at its imaging business then one knows for a fact that Sony is doing something very special in that space, so there is no reason why the company cannot repeat the same success in the smartphone, gaming and TV space.
The Xperia Z also has the first mover’s advantage. At least that’s what I hope, so if Sony is able to get the battery life, the camera and software updates bang on, the Xperia Z could turn into a deadly pre-emptive nuke in the smartphone wars.
