Sony Mobile launched their latest range of mobile phones, the Xperia NXT series, at a launch function in Johannesburg last night. The range will consist of three different versions within the Xperia franchise, namely the Xperia S, Xperia U and the Xperia P.
During the launch Rüdiger Odenbach, Vice President for Sony Mobile’s Customer Unit in Middle East and Africa, said that the Sony experience is more than just a mobile phone.
While the units work perfectly well on their own, they have the potential to tap into so much more of what Sony has to offer.
“It’s beyond the smartphone. It’s not only a piece with a CPU and memory – it’s much, much more. And I think everything really differentiates us from the competitors in the market. It’s not about just mobile phones, it’s about the entire package that comes with Sony Mobile,” Odenbach said.
The Sony Xperia S is the first smartphone from the manufacturer to be branded only with Sony, after the company bought out Ericsson’s share early this year. It comes equipped with a 4.3 in (110 mm) touch-screen with the mobile BRAVIA engine, a 12.1 mega-pixel rear camera, HDMI-out, 1 GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage. It’s also the first Sony smartphone to make use of a 1.5GHz dual core processor.
Sticking to the theme that it’s more than just about mobile phones, the Xperia S is also PlayStation Certified, which enables it to play PlayStation Suite games. PlayStation Suite is an upcoming service from Sony that will allow users to download PlayStation content on PlayStation Certified devices.
Sony will be taking on the mobile market in force in the coming months, and Odenbach added that the company has big ambitions.
“Our ambition is to be the leading manufacturer in the Android segment and the preferred smartphone. We have a good base, and although Sony Mobile is only two months old, we have all the assets, the entertainment and the connectivity,” he said.
Odenbach also provided a number of statistics in terms of Sony and its different segments, and mentioned that “Sony creates and delivers more entertainment experiences to more people than anyone else on earth.”
According to him, Sony has sold 900-million Sony devices, 94-million PlayStation accounts worldwide, 1-billion viewers of Sony Television network, Sony sold 1-billion movies and televisions shows last year, and predicted 300-million Sony network connected products in the next three years.
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
