Sony Discontinuing Its ‘Premium Standard’ Smartphones; To Launch Two New Flagships Later This Year

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Published 25 May 2017

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Sony Xperia X - back view

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.

[Via Xperia Blog]