Informa’s Dave McQueen on Sony’s new handset range

Here’s a viewpoint from Dave McQueen, Informa’s Principal Telecoms Analyst, on Sony’s new handset range, the bulk of which chimes with my own perspective.

Over to Dave:

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Whilst Sony Ericsson devices were still being ranged last month at CES in Las Vegas, the company has now gone it alone at MWC with its first Sony branded devices. Building on its XPERIA branded Android phones, the company has announced three smartphones, the XPERIA S, P and U, which help it segment across price and feature tiers.

To reiterate their Sony-ness, the portfolio offers a nod to its Bravia TVs with classic design and a translucent stripe at the bottom of the device whilst differentiating its offering utilising its heritage in music and cameras. To enhance the latter, Sony has added a white pixel to image capture on the XPERIA S device, called White Magic, which makes photos much crisper and clearer reducing the reliance on back-lighting while significantly reducing overall power consumption of the display.

All the new devices come equipped with NFC and to help connectivity across mobile devices and in the home the company has also launched “smart-tags”. Based on NFC and offered in packs of 3, users can set-up profiles via the smartphone for individual smart-tags depending on a requirement, such as connectivity in-car or with a music system. These take a shortcut to the benefits of near-field connectivity, offering a much more practical and easier proposition to the end user.

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Good points Dave! Thank you.