Sony’s smartphone business continues to struggle, but the company has still not given up on its Xperia lineup as it keeps launching new smartphones every six months. Now, as a part of its investor conference presentation in Tokyo, Sony has announced that it will no longer be launching ‘Premium Standard’ phones.
Instead, the company will focus on high value-added flagship models like the Xperia XZ Premium and the Xperia XZs. As for the ‘Premium Standard’ phones, Sony will be discontinuing its Xperia X and Xperia X Compact lineup. This means that we will not be seeing a successor to these handsets from the company now. These phones pack flagship-like hardware at prices that are higher than usual mid-range smartphones. It’s likely that Sony is discontinuing its ‘Premium Standard’ lineup due to the lack of sales. With mid-range smartphones getting so better, it never made much sense from a consumer viewpoint to buy one of company’s Xperia X or X Compact smartphones. Instead of focusing on ‘Premium Standard’ smartphones, Sony should have ideally focused on its mid-range smartphones which have been selling like hot cakes in Asian countries. The presentation slide also confirmed that Sony will be launching two new flagships later this year. Sony follows a six-month release cycle for its flagship smartphone so the Japanese company launching new flagship smartphones later this year should not be news to the company’s loyal fan base.
