Sony phones

Sony is a trade name of Sony Corporation; a Japanese conglomerate that releases movies and music in addition to consumer electronics. We know the company mostly for its premium TVs, PlayStation game console and cell phones.

Sony history

Sony was founded just after World War II under the name TTK which translated stands for Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering. The company gained success selling transistor radios and small portable televisions. In order not to stand in the way of global success, it was decided to change the name to Sony in 1958. Sony's TVs were then sold all over the world, and it co-founded the Compact Disc (CD) with Philips.

Sony Ericsson

It was not until 1997 that Sony released its first cell phone; the CM-DX1000. Most Sony phones from that time were distinguished by a rotary wheel on the side. Sony never managed to gain much market share, and in August 2001 a Joint Venture was formed with Sweden's Ericsson to turn the tide. Both companies would integrate their expertise and techniques into phones focused on photography and multimedia. Some typical models were those from the W series; a reference to Sony's Walkman and the K series that had reasonable success in photography. Consider the K800i with its Cybershot camera with Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon flash.

Sony Ericsson focused on smartphones rather late, sticking with the Symbian operating system for a long time, even when Android was already starting to emerge. It even briefly had a foray into Windows Mobile with the Xperia X1; also the first model with the Xperia name. The inconsistent strategy was one of the reasons sales were down and it was overtaken in terms of market share by LG and others. Meanwhile, it was also rumored that the marriage between Sony and Ericsson was not really going well. Sony bought up Ericsson's shares in 2012, ending a 10-year marriage.

Sony Xperia series

Meanwhile, Sony only makes smartphones running Android under the name Xperia. That name is a derivative of "experience. Especially the first models in the Xperia series carried names. Some examples are arc, neo and mini. Only years later did it begin to exclusively use letters (sometimes several and followed by a number) to designate devices. We have had many by now but the currently current series names are;

• Xperia 1 - Premium flagship
• Xperia 10 - Mid-range phablet
• Xperia L - Entry-level models
• Xperia XA - Former mid-range models
• Xperia XZ - Former high-end flagship

Within a series, Sony still maintains subcategories, denoted by the following addition:

• Compact - Smaller but equally powerful model
• Plus - Larger model
• Premium - Premium high-end specifications
• Ultra - The predecessor of Plus; phablet variant

Sony Boy

To assist the Sony brand's international launch, a mascot was created. A cartoon-like character named Atchan. Since this did not have the best international appeal, it was eventually named "Sony Boy. The character had to sell the then smallest transistor radio in the world, the TR-63. Successfully, as one and a half million copies were sold.

Typical Sony: BRAVIA, Exmor RS and ClearAudio+

Sony reuses many technologies in its phones from other parts of the company. Think BRAVIA and X-Reality from the TV angle. But also Exmor RS, BIONZ X and SteadyShot from the Alpha cameras and ClearAudio+ and Clear Bass from the audio division are used a lot. This should provide a total experience with so much added value that no other product from the competition can match it.

Xperia design style

Sony is known for its beautiful and eye-catching design. It also always pushes to create its own style that usually has its own name as well. The first real design style was Iconic Identity (2012) which was succeeded by OmniBalance in 2013. A brief foray was made in 2016 to Unified Design only to move to Ambient Flow again in 2018. Adopting such a design style should ensure that Xperia phones remain recognizable, mutually similar and attractive(er) compared to those of the competition.