Sony, once one of the leading electronic brands in the world, has slipped in comparison to other telecom companies such as Apple and Samsung in terms of sales and popularity of products.

However, the Japan-based company could still count on the strong features of its products in a bid to reassert its place in the marketplace. For 2013, Sony targets to ship 50 million Xperia smartphones, relying mainly on Xperia T and TL, which were featured in Skyfall, the latest James Bond movie.

Will the popularity of the James Bond movie rub off on Sony which is still known worldwide for technological innovations and service in appliances and electronics?

Sony Mobile, formerly known as Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications before Sony acquired the Ericsson share in the joint venture on Feb 16, 2012, is the world's third-largest mobile phone manufacturer by market share. Sony Mobile logged €5.212 billion revenue in 2011.

In a bid to further boost sales, Sony Mobile introduced new innovations in its smartphone devices that use the Android OS under the Xperia line.

The Xperia is known for at least five strong features which loyal Sony users appreciate and are considered the strong selling points of Sony products.

BRAVIA Engine

Bravia is a brand of Sony television units known for high image quality. Sony included the technology of Bravia TVs to the XPERIA family.

Bravia Mobile Engine combined the contrast enhancement technologies used in Bravia TVs with colour management and added sharpness filters and noise reduction to display beautiful, vivid images and videos on XPERIA smartphones. Most XPERIA units have Bravia Engine installed and the effect enhances image and video viewing.

WhiteMagic

The Sony XPERIA P is one the latest in the XPERIA line up which introduced the WhiteMagic technology. This new technology features a solution for phone viewing problems under the bright sunlight.

Unlike the displays of other smartphones, WhiteMagic units have four colour subpixels, white, red, blue and green, instead of only red, blue, and green. It allows the display to show more brightness even under the sunlight while not draining too much of the battery. Another plus is its Outdoor or Indoor mode adjustment depending on the surroundings.

The technology also allows the user to use black and white colours only if the battery level is in crucial state, thereby extending the battery life and to control power consumption of applications the user wants, a unique feature in Xperia P.

PlayStation Certified

Xperia Play was the first to be certified for PlayStation games as a smartphone. The PlayStation Certified mark in Xperia devices allows owners to access PlayStation Mobile and PlayStations ready for mobile version game types. Some of the games available in PlayStation Mobile are:

  • A Bug's Life
  • Cool Boarders
  • Crash Bandicoot
  • Tekken
  • Twisted Metal

Timescape

This feature has been available to Sony Ericsson Xperia devices and has been extended to future Xperia devices. It allows users to collect communication information such as text, multimedia, and web service update in one view and appears in chronological order.

The difference of this feature to similar applications is the entire communication information synching which is not limited to SMS and SNS only. However, not all countries or regions or networks support Timescape.

Other Features in XPERIA devices

  • xLoud Experience: Amplifies the sound output
  • Clear Audio Technology and Clearbass: Amplifies the sound but doesn't sacrifice the quality since the technology renders the bass and amplification properly for the original sound quality.
  • Exmor RS: The latest technology for camera in smartphones and tablets for capturing high-quality images.
  • Superior Auto: Combines Scene Recognition and high-quality image technology to automatically shoot the images with optimal settings. The camera shoot bursts images based on recognised scenery and then creates composite of the burst images. After that, the camera automatically corrects the backlight and reduces noise by the overlaying images for high-quality result.

For calendar year 2012, Sony targeted the shipment of 35 million Xperia phones, which is a 50 per cent increase from the previous year. Tech observers are not sure if Sony could meet its 2013 target of 50 million units and believe the roll out of the Xperia Odin at the CES 2013 may be critical for Sony to retain its standing as the third-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world.

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