Support NeoGAF

[zomgbbqftw]

My friend you remember wrongly. This was from year ending March 2013. March 2011 to March 2012 they sold 20m smart phones. Next year they sold 50% more and last year 30% more. Total 100% more smart phones in 2 years.

As to the Tablet - I really dont think Sony should be a budget brand. Z3 TabletC has better hardware than Ipad mini retina. If they cant sell their products at higher premiums than Asus and Acer, then those products should not be made.

They basically priced it the same as Samsung Tab S.

Sure, I would love to be free even... but I doubt they have enough of compelling services to sell on these tablets until PSNow arrives in Europe.

Also, Z2 tablet started at €499 while this is €369 starting point.

That was three years ago and it is irrelevant now. For the last two years they have sold 33m (S/T) and 39.1m (Z/Z1) units. The growth rate has been slower than the market expansion and for the first quarter of this year they went backwards for the first time since the joint venture days. I think the phones are good and competitively priced, the Z3C at £429 is very well priced and comes in at the bottom of the range I expected, I think it will shift a lot of units if they advertise it properly and get carrier deals globally. The Z3 also looks good and it should do well against the S5 over the next few months.

The issue is with tablets where they have always priced "competitively" with Apple which is basically a joke. At £329 there will be no buyers, the difference in hardware means nothing. One is an Apple product and the other is not but more expensive. Sony's brand has completely lost any meaning in this sector, they are one among many competitors, they are behind Samsung, LG and a whole bunch of Chinese brands.

If they had come in at £249 and €299 it would have literally flown off the shelves and they still would have made a lot of money. At £329 it will sell basically nothing and by the time they get down to a decent price it will be too late as Apple will have demoted the iPad Mini retina to the £249 bracket and then there is basically no competing. Sony have about six months to make an impact in this category, at £329 it will have no impact. People will take a look, then see the price and buy an iPad Mini. All of the "hardware" and "features that Sony have added will mean literally nothing once people look at the price.

 

[Fezan]

Say what you will about Sony but they still know how to design beautiful hardware

 

[Hiko]

At least the white is actually white this time and not that black on top BS.

Any good shots of the copper version? Looks hot.

 

[DieH@rd]

UGH, now I can't choose between the Z3C and the rumored Moto X+1

Z3C is still not out. You can wait a while and see how X+1 will end up be. I hope nobody is forcing you to spend your money RIGHT NOW.

IMO, Z3C will 100% end up to be more powerful specs wize. MotoX was a midrange device, targeted at $250 pricepoint.

 

[R1CHO]

They talk about the e3 as mid range, but it's junk, unless they go with an aggressive price tag (<150$) but I doubt that very much.

At least it has thay characteristic xperia design.

 

[DieH@rd]

Xperia E3 is.... bad [S400 quad, 480p screen, 1gb of ram, and very bad camera].
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_e3-6634.php


Only very low price can save it.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

At least the white is actually white this time and not that black on top BS.

Any good shots of the copper version? Looks hot.

Black on the front. Lame.

 

[Vanillalite]

Z3C is still not out. You can wait a while and see how X+1 will end up be. I hope nobody is forcing you to spend your money RIGHT NOW.

IMO, Z3C will 100% end up to be more powerful specs wize. MotoX was a midrange device, targeted at $250 pricepoint.

Moto X isn't even $250 now let alone the revisionist history on this device price wise. Shit launched and was mad expensive just like every other flagship that wasn't a Nexus.

 

[DieH@rd]

Well I don't know current prices, but it was announced as a cheap phone.

Beginning at the end of August, the 16GB model will retail for $199 with a two-year contract on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Verizon, while the 32GB flavor (an AT&T exclusive) will ship for $249. Only AT&T customers will have access to additional color options -- those on other carriers can choose from black and white.

In my country MotoX never arrived, and I don't know what is situation in EU.

 

[asdad123]

Well I don't know current prices, but it was announced as a cheap phone.



In my country MotoX never arrived, and I don't know what is situation in EU.

That's not "cheap". It's the same price as every other flagship phone released in the last several years while having worse specs.

 

[Volotaire]

Black on the front. Lame.

That's a shame.

 

[DieH@rd]

That's not "cheap". It's the same price as every other flagship phone released in the last several years while having worse specs.

Heh, I must be going completely mad.

 

[Vanillalite]

Heh, I must be going completely mad.

That's ON CONTRACT....

 

[spwolf]

That was three years ago and it is irrelevant now. For the last two years they have sold 33m (S/T) and 39.1m (Z/Z1) units. The growth rate has been slower than the market expansion and for the first quarter of this year they went backwards for the first time since the joint venture days. I think the phones are good and competitively priced, the Z3C at £429 is very well priced and comes in at the bottom of the range I expected, I think it will shift a lot of units if they advertise it properly and get carrier deals globally. The Z3 also looks good and it should do well against the S5 over the next few months.

Well, I am talking about rise in the past years, you are looking at single FY for growth. Their growth for the past 3 years has been 50% + 30%, otherwise you are literally looking at only one year.

In any case, for any further rise, they need to do more in US and China, which they seem to be doing with Sprint deal thats both US and Japan.

I think major problem for their phone sales in Europe was late introduction of phones for the past 9 months.

With Z3, Z3C, T3 and even E3, they are fixing this problem. and they have pretty good lineup. M2 was late, E1 was late, Z1C was "late".

Now, at least around here, with Z3, Z3C, T3, M2 and E3, they have good lineup overall. Probably the best lineup after Samsung which simply has too many phones.

 

[NH Apache]

That's not "cheap". It's the same price as every other flagship phone released in the last several years while having worse specs.

299 for the Notes

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Well, I am talking about rise in the past years, you are looking at single FY for growth. Their growth for the past 3 years has been 50% + 30%, otherwise you are literally looking at only one year.

In any case, for any further rise, they need to do more in US and China, which they seem to be doing with Sprint deal thats both US and Japan.

I think major problem for their phone sales in Europe was late introduction of phones for the past 9 months.

With Z3, Z3C, T3 and even E3, they are fixing this problem. and they have pretty good lineup. M2 was late, E1 was late, Z1C was "late".

Now, at least around here, with Z3, Z3C, T3, M2 and E3, they have good lineup overall. Probably the best lineup after Samsung which simply has too many phones.

Last year was 39.1m compared to 33m the year before. That's 18%

18% vs 38% industry growth. Completely missing the rise of the Chinese market by releasing shitty and expensive phones like the T3.

This year they are projecting 43m units down from 50m originally, and they are down YoY for the first quarter. Even at 43m that would be growth of just 10% which is a joke.

Just to press home my point, they just demoted the unit head and Kaz has taken over all of his roles:

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201408/14-077E/index.html

"Organizational Changes
UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Platform
UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Platform to be established.
UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Group to be established within UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Platform. Headquarters Brand Strategy Department, UX & Product Strategy Group and Global Sales & Marketing Group to be transferred to this Group.
Business Development Division to be transferred to UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Platform.

Professional Services
Creative Center to be moved to Professional Services.
Executive Appointments

Kazuo Hirai, President and CEO to be appointed Officer in charge of UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Platform.


Kunimasa Suzuki
Corporate Executive Officer, Executive Vice President

(New)
Officer in charge of Mobile Business

(Current)
Officer in charge of Mobile Business and UX, Product Strategy and Creative Platform

Shiro Kambe
Corporate Executive Officer, Executive Vice President

(New)
Officer in charge of Legal, Compliance, Corporate Communications, CSR and External Relations

(Current)
Officer in charge of Legal, Compliance, Corporate Communications, CSR, External Relations and Brand

Personnel Appointments
UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Platform

Hideyuki Furumi
Corporate Executive, Senior Vice President

(New)
President of UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Group,
UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Platform

(Current)
President of UX & Product Strategy Group,
UX, Product Strategy and Creative Platform

Hiroshi Takahashi
(New)
Deputy President of UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Group, UX, Product Strategy, Sales & Marketing Platform

(Current)
President of Global Sales & Marketing Group,
Global Sales & Marketing Platform"

Which is in line with what I heard about a month ago that Kunimisa is on his way out and Kaz is going to oversee the business. Hopefully the strategy for the Z3TC is a holdover from the old management, rather than part of what Kaz is going to do.

 

[reKon]

Z3C is still not out. You can wait a while and see how X+1 will end up be. I hope nobody is forcing you to spend your money RIGHT NOW.

IMO, Z3C will 100% end up to be more powerful specs wize. MotoX was a midrange device, targeted at $250 pricepoint.

No it isn't. The Moto X was like a $500 device that got price drops later in the year to get it to $350 regularly. I don't even know why people call it a mid range device if it was outperforming the flagships that it was up against at the time. This was most evident when it came to graphic performance...

 

[Tekniqs]

did they state a release date?
I'm not sure which phone I'd rather have..they both sound great.

 

[outunderthestars]

The issue is with tablets where they have always priced "competitively" with Apple which is basically a joke. At £329 there will be no buyers, the difference in hardware means nothing. One is an Apple product and the other is not but more expensive. Sony's brand has completely lost any meaning in this sector, they are one among many competitors, they are behind Samsung, LG and a whole bunch of Chinese brands.

If they had come in at £249 and &#8364;299 it would have literally flown off the shelves and they still would have made a lot of money. At £329 it will sell basically nothing and by the time they get down to a decent price it will be too late as Apple will have demoted the iPad Mini retina to the £249 bracket and then there is basically no competing. Sony have about six months to make an impact in this category, at £329 it will have no impact. People will take a look, then see the price and buy an iPad Mini. All of the "hardware" and "features that Sony have added will mean literally nothing once people look at the price.

We will see. a waterproof tablet will sell well to women who enjoying reading in the bath, people who want to use a tablet in the kitchen, while out and about etc. You seem to be living in a 2012 world where Apple dominated the tablet market:

Apple is hemorrhaging market share at this point, and I think that the iPad Mini's market is ripe for poaching as there are few competitors in the premium tablet space.

Sony is clearing targeting their phones and tablets at the premium side of the market, instead of chasing Amazon and Google into the bargain bins.

Will they sell tens of millions of tablets? Doubtful, but they have a very good chance of making a tidy profit from their new phone and tablet lines.

 

[spwolf]

Which is in line with what I heard about a month ago that Kunimisa is on his way out and Kaz is going to oversee the business. Hopefully the strategy for the Z3TC is a holdover from the old management, rather than part of what Kaz is going to do.

Well you are basically saying that they should do T3 Tablet, and I agree with that. They should have low-premium and high end premium tablets, not just 2 high ends.

 

[spwolf]

holy crap, my T-Mobile here already has special offer for Z3, Z3C - for sale! Expected delivery 3 weeks. This is fastest they had pre-order up for any phone ever, so it is probably some big advertising push by Sony.

 

[reKon]

holy crap, my T-Mobile here already has special offer for Z3, Z3C - for sale! Expected delivery 3 weeks. This is fastest they had pre-order up for any phone ever, so it is probably some big advertising push by Sony.

WHAT? Are you sure the Z3C? I will rejoice if true..

 

[outunderthestars]

holy crap, my T-Mobile here already has special offer for Z3, Z3C - for sale! Expected delivery 3 weeks. This is fastest they had pre-order up for any phone ever, so it is probably some big advertising push by Sony.

Where is here?

 

[Omnistalgic]

Sony and SoftBank signed a device deal for the holiday season. The Z3 will probably cone to Sprint by the end of October.

I think it will come to Verizon as well.

They seriously need to up the ante with service providers. With the Z3, I think the majority of weakness (size/comfortability/heat issues/bezzel) have been addressed. With PS4 users and gamers in general, this could be one heck of a device. But Tmobile isn't the biggest in the U.S, although it is growing fast. I personally use Tmobile.

Also, is the compact supposed to be a little cheaper than vanilla Z3? both look quite sexy? I'm glad to see an SD card option, so many phone makers keep dropping this, and I keep getting pissed off.

 

[TCRS]

Sony Xperia Z3 video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWwdTV8ULU0

 

[spwolf]

WHAT? Are you sure the Z3C? I will rejoice if true..

Sorry guys - T-mobile eastern europe... yes, both Z3 and Z3C will be delivered by the end of the month for first buyers. I believe this has been the fastest Sony introduction in the history. Usually they start deliveries almost 2 months after introduction.

 

[spwolf]

They seriously need to up the ante with service providers. With the Z3, I think the majority of weakness (size/comfortability/heat issues/bezzel) have been addressed. With PS4 users and gamers in general, this could be one heck of a device. But Tmobile isn't the biggest in the U.S, although it is growing fast. I personally use Tmobile.

Also, is the compact supposed to be a little cheaper than vanilla Z3? both look quite sexy? I'm glad to see an SD card option, so many phone makers keep dropping this, and I keep getting pissed off.

In Germany, Z3 is €649 and Z3C is €499.... so there is quite a difference there.. I doubt manufacturing price difference is that big... it is likely a lot smaller.

 

[Hiko]

Black on the front. Lame.

What is wrong with this company? Just make it all one color. Or if you have to, use white on the front.

 

[Kyoufu]

What is wrong with this company? Just make it all one color. Or if you have to, use white on the front.

It's white on the front in that video. I'm confused.

 

[spwolf]

We had one user at Xperiablog compare gsmarena first pics of Z3C vs their previous pics of Z2 and S5... Z3C pics look way, way superior to both.

 

[Cromat]

Sony's phones are really nice. With Android really maturing I think they have a great shot of success, the problem is with their phones is that there are too many of them and they release too often.

Also, the Z1 and Z2 were really pretty but also uncomfortable to hold.

 

[Tekniqs]

I need DAT z3c in mint or white! When can I get my grubby hands on those?

 

[Yopis]

Will these come to USA?

 

[killertofu]

Is it time to jump the ios ship?

That two day battery life can't be real

 

[Jazzy Network]

Will these come to USA?

As far as I know T-Mobile only.

 

[Kyoufu]

Is it time to jump the ios ship?

That two day battery life can't be real

The Z2 already has two day battery life.

 

[Futureman]

Are they still going to ignore the US? Last I checked TMobile was the only carrier with a Sony phone.

Edit: ohh I see two posts above. So weird. Stupid Sony.

 

[vivftp]

I thought there was talk about the phones coming to Sprint as well.

 

[Tekniqs]

thing with T-mobile is they also offer a factory unlocked version to buy outright, right? If not, I may have to just order one from another country.

 

[Jazzy Network]

thing with T-mobile is they also offer a factory unlocked version to buy outright, right? If not, I may have to just order one from another country.

Um no? Only unlocked phone out of the box they offer is Nexus 5.

 

[Tekniqs]

welps, looks like internet order for me

or...can't you buy a phone outright from any of the providers and have them unlock it since you own the phone?

 

[Jazzy Network]

I guess you can but you are still locked to whatever radios that version has.

 

[jey_16]

Whats the difference between the Z3 and Z2?

 

[Tekniqs]

I guess you can but you are still locked to whatever radios that version has.

as long as LTE band works with At&t it'll be good to go.

 

[XBP]

Whats the difference between the Z3 and Z2?

Specs look pretty much the same minus the IP certification. Other differences are mainly related to software and hardware optimizations.

 

[Jazzy Network]

as long as LTE band works with At&t it'll be good to go.

Which is highly doubtful. They run off different bands.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

SMH at pricing a 8 inch tablet anything more than £250

That market is way way way way too competitive to charge premium prices.

Even NIVIDA of all people, gets it.

I'm wondering if they really think remote play is going to be a differentiator.

That will be hacked and on unofficial devices before the thing launches worldwide.

 

[alterno69]

Remote play and waterproof are huge for me, might be time to change my ipad mini.

 

[reKon]

yeah, there's no excuse for that price when the Nvidia Shield Tablet shreds and is priced that well..

 

[Jazzy Network]

If teh Z3 tablet has a media remote built in for the PS4, I might get it just for that lol. $400 remote control. Fuckyea!