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Take a quick stroll through Sprint’s history of phones and you’ll find that the company has never offered a single Sony Android smartphone. Ever. Shocking, isn’t it? That could change soon, though, as Reuters reports Sprint and Softbank will look to offer their first smartphone from Sony later this year. The exact wording was that this would be a “flagship smartphone,” and nothing sounds more flagship-y than Sony’s Xperia Z3 set to be unveiled at IFA next week.
The report didn’t specify whether the launch would be exclusive for Sprint which leaves hope that it could eventually make its way to other carriers. We wouldn’t bet on that, though, considering Sony doesn’t have a history of being able to get their smartphones onto multiple US carriers at a time like HTC, LG, Samsung and Motorola have been able to.
We’re certainly hoping that this is the first step to penetrating the US market with a more aggressive strategy, though, and that Sony could eventually reach the heights of their aforementioned competitors. The consumer electronics industry hasn’t exactly been friendly to Sony over the years with their struggling television and PC business havign drained them of a ton of money. They’ve gone as far as having to sell or spin-off some of those divisions and scale their business down.
Their smartphone business wasn’t in as immediate danger as those dollar-sucking entities (we imagine it’s much less expensive to develop, research and manufacture smartphones than TVs and computers), however it isn’t exactly strong enough alone to keep Sony in the black. Let’s hope this is a good first step toward changing that.
As long as T-Mobile gets the Z3..hopefully the Z3 and Z3compact.
“Take a quick stroll through Sprint’s history of phones and you’ll find that the company has never offered a single Sony Android smartphone.”
I don’t think Sprint has offered a single Sony phone period. Smartphone, feature phone, or even basic phone.
Here’s to hoping the Z3 is the first!
Back in the dumb phone Sprint PCS days, there were Sony Ericson phones.
Actually, there was only one Sony phone, in the past…and it was quite a cool phone (prior to the ppc / iphone explosion). That phone was the Sony CM-Z100SPR. I remember it clearly because my cousin had it and I really wanted to get one also, but they stopped selling it before I got my own account, separate from the folks. That was way back in 1999/2000. After that, I remember there still being Ericsson phones, but not a Sony specific phone.
Like Sharp phones being added Sony isn’t a surprise, let’s see if they get panosonic as well
Well, if Z2 is on Softbank, which is the owner of Sprint right now, I think it’s possible. It’s a Z2s, not a Z3.. =.=
Possible
Makes sense that this is now happening. Both Softbank/Sprint and Sony are Japanese.
“Take a quick stroll through Sony’s history of phones and you’ll find
that the company has never offered a single CDMA Android smartphone.
Ever.”
There, I fixed it for you.
Also, how is Sprint supposed to offer a phone from Sony when “http://news.cnet.com/Sony-Ericsson-No-CDMA-in-U.S.-phones/2100-1037_3-1020551.html ”
“Sony Ericsson: No CDMA in U.S. phones”
That article is from 2003 because Sony wanted to snub Qualcomm and not pay licencsing fees for technology they didn’t personally own.
CDMA? Would be stupid not to bring it to Verizon then.
That’s true. Economies of scale and all that. 100 million potential customers on Verizon. Although based on how they behave with Nexus devices, it may be possible that Sony doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of getting phones approved to run on Verizon’s network.
But it would take another 8 months before it reaches Verizon.