Barcelona: Sony Group CEO, Kazuo Hirai, reiterated that Sony will be transformed into a highly profitable enterprise after the company unveiled its new Xperia Z4 tablet and M4 Aqua smartphone on Monday at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) currently under way in Barcelona.
He said the smartphone market is highly cost competitive and “we expect the modernisation we are seeing to continue. Mobile remains an important part of Sony group. Smartphones, tablets, smart wears and mobile services are firmly included in our daily lives.”
“Mobile devices are the heart at how we communicate and they are the first and the last we do when getting up or going to sleep,” he said.
The Japanese giant is going through a huge restructuring in a bid to drag itself out of the red. The firm’s loss forecast included a huge write-down in its Xperia phone unit, as it falls further behind rivals Samsung and Apple.
Hiroki Totoki, who took over as the President and CEO of Sony Mobile Communications in order to return to black, said mobile will be at our heart of future business.
“Our success will come from optimising our core smartphone business and from new business opportunities and new ways of learning,” he said.
Talking on Z4 Aqua, he said that Sony has created a new super mid-range phone in bid to cater to new customers.
The Z4 tablet, which is also the world’s thinnest and lightest tablet with 6.1mm and 389 grams, comes with 10.1-inch display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and runs on latest Android 5.0 Lollipop. It has 8MP rear camera and 5MP front-facing camera.
Sony claims the waterproof device has 17-hour video playback time and runs by Qualcomm’s latest 64 bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.
Sony has also made a removable Bluetooth keyboard accessory into which the tablet slots, turning it into an Android-powered laptop that includes a trackpad.
Dennis van Schie, senior vice-president of sales and marketing at Sony Mobile, said that with Z4 tablet, consumers can leave their PCs at home.
“Building on the success of its predecessor, we wanted to take all of the qualities that consumers loved most in Xperia Z2 Tablet and enhance them for Z4 Tablet. Consumers appreciate innovation most when it can bring real value to their lives, so we have carefully crafted and considered every aspect of Z4 Tablet to meet even the most demanding lifestyle,” he said.
The five-inch waterproof M4 Aqua has a five-inch HD display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor and 2GB of RAM coupled with a choice of either 8GB or 16GB of storage and a microSD card slot which takes 32GB cards. It has 13MP front and 5Mp rear cameras.
Xperia M4 Aqua will launch in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in April for Dh1199.
“Xperia M4 Aqua represents our renewed mid-range focus — with no compromises. We have sold more than 30 million Xperia Z units globally and it still continues,” van Schie said.
