In a stunning announcement, Sony Xperia Z4, the much-ballyhoed next flagship product for Sony's smartphone business is destined to never see the light of day outside Japan, at least not bearing the name it has carried for the longest time, so details the Japanese tech behemoth Monday. In its lieu, the rebranded Sony Xperia Z3+.
Reportedly, Sony Inc. announced that its flagship smartphone, Sony Xperia Z4 is bound for sale outside of Japan for the very first time June this year. However, the tech giant also revealed it won't be marketing said product under its widely-accepted name Sony Xperia Z4 but will instead utilize Sony Xperia Z3+, in reference to its earlier relatively successful smartphone Sony Xperia Z3. With absolutely no changes whatsoever in specs.
While it may be construed as a largely strategic move, this backtracking does not bode well for Sony and for its smartphone products. A name-change, though largely nominal, speaks volumes of how wishy-washy the Japanese titan's approach in its smartphone business is. Which, given recent circumstances could be at the brink of folding up.
Concrete proof: laying off hundreds of workers. To be exact, 1000 workers.
In another surprise move, Sony Mobile - the division under which Xperia series gets manufactured - is retrenching 1,000 jobs (575 staff and 400 contract positions) in its key manufacturing and R&D plant in Sweden. All told, about 1,200 workers will remain.
The move is seen as a direct result of the appointment of Hiroki Totoki as head of Sony Mobile starting October 2014 who vowed to turn around the largely limping handset division. Just February this year, another 2,100 workers were laid off by the smartphone division totaling the number to around 5,000 people.
Truly, it may well be timely restructuring for the Japanese conglomerate but in a market where it has failed time and again to capture a respectable spot, it could be the beginning of the end. At least for its smartphone business.
Sony Xperia Z3+ is erringly similar in looks to the its predecessor, Sony Xperia Z3. So similar even a hardcore Sony fan would find it hard distinguishing the two. Unless of course, you dip both in water as Z3+ is water-resistant.
Added to this, the Z3+ is slightly slimmer than the original Z3 at 6.99mm and also sports a slightly smaller 2,930mAh battery along with top-of-the-line Snapdragon 810 processor and 3GB RAM. Complete the picture with a 5.2-inch 1080p display and Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box and you have one flagship product formerly dubbed as Sony Xperia Z4 to look out for.
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