Sony phones

Sony is a trading name of Sony Corporation; a Japanese conglomerate that releases films and music in addition to consumer electronics. We know the company mainly for its premium TVs, PlayStation game console and mobile 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. To avoid standing 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 wasn't until 1997 that Sony released its first mobile 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 it entered into a Joint Venture 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 which had reasonable success in photography. Think of the K800i with its Cybershot camera with Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon flash.

Sony Ericsson focused on smartphones quite late, sticking to 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 why sales were down and it was overtaken in terms of market share by LG, among others. Meanwhile, it was also rumoured that the marriage between Sony and Ericsson was not really working out. Sony bought up Ericsson's shares in 2012, ending a 10-year marriage.

Sony Xperia series

Meanwhile, Sony purely 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 start using exclusively 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 devised. A cartoon-like character called Atchan. As this didn't really go down well internationally, 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 of them were sold.

Typically 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 corner. But Exmor RS, BIONZ X and SteadyShot from the Alpha cameras and ClearAudio+ and Clear Bass from the audio division are also widely used. This should create an overall experience with so much added value that no other competitor's product 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 to Unified Design in 2016 before moving to Ambient Flow as early as 2018. Adopting such a design style should ensure that Xperia phones remain recognisable, mutually similar and attractive(er) compared to those of competitors.