Sony releases 2 smartphones; virtual reality takes centre stage at MWC 2016
Japanese tech giant unveils phone gear that follows voice, gesture commands
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Barcelona, Spain: Sony Mobile launched two new mid-tier smartphones — the Sony Xperia X and the Xperia XA — as well as a premium device, the Xperia Performance, and a raft of other smart devices.
The Japanese giant, which has been losing ground, has been battling to get a foothold in the nascent Internet of Things market to find a new revenue stream as its globalsmartphone sales slow with its Xperia range of smart devices.
The phones feature next next-generation technologies in the camera, battery and design departments.
The Xperia X ships with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 650 hexa-core processor and is available with a range of matching covers. The handsets are available in White, Graphite Black, Lime Gold, and Rose Gold colours.
Both devices boast 5-inch screens and house a 23 mega-pixel (MP) main camera and a 13MP selfie camera, in addition to the predictive element.
Users can track a moving object and the camera will lock onto it, keep it focused and take a number of snaps in order to keep the image sharp.
Sony also said its camera is twice as fast as the one on its previous phone, the Xperia Z5.
“Sony Mobile will continue to create increasingly personalised and intelligent products and services that empower you to do more, and live more creatively than ever,” says Hiroki Totoki, Sony Mobile president and CEO at the launch.
“We want to change how you access information and interact with friends and family in a closer, natural and more meaningful way,” he said.
The Japanese giant also unveiled an earpiece — Xperia Ear — that puts a virtual assistant in its owner’s ears and a wearable camera — Xperia Eye, and an adaptive projector as it seeks revenues from different types of devices as the smartphone market slows.
The app on the phone provides location and time-based prompts about the weather, diary appointments, social media posts, missed calls and the news.
Sony has tied up with Qnovo, a Silicon Valley-based start-up, to adopt a new battery technology which will scan the condition of the battery — sees its temperature and the condition of usage — to see its health level, and then optimises the charging to not damage the battery.
A Sony spokesperson said that the battery will last twice the life as more people change a smartphone every two years due to weak batteries.
Sony ranks outside the world’s top 10 bestselling smartphone brands. It suffered a 27 per cent fall in its smartphone shipments last year, according to market research firm IDC.
In the fourth quarter, the company shipped 36 per cent fewer handsets compared to a year earlier.
Ian Fogg, an analyst with IHS Technology, said that Sony’s shipments will continue to decline this year and next year.
“Can Sony stay profitable if its sales decline?” he said.
The wearable camera with a lens lets one capture an image in 360 degrees. It has an intelligent shutter that recognises faces and movements while the Xperia Projector is a portable short-throw projector that turns anything into an interactive surface.
A user can place the device next to a table for instance, and can play around and interact with the projection that is shown.The Xperia X comes with a fingerprint scanner on the right hand side.
Sony's new Xperia Ear that put virtual assistant in the ears of the users Sony' Xperia Agent is a vision for personalized assistant. It will enhance everyday life with voice and gestures
HP also released its Elite x3 phablet. The 5.96-inch device is powered by 2.15GHz Qualcomm 820 processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. It weighs 195 grams and runs on Windows OS.
Samung, meanwhile, released its latest Galaxy S7 edge at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona on February 21.
Samsung also unveiled its 360-degree camera, whick likes like an eyeball. The South Korean electronics giant is entering the 360-degree imaging market in its infancy with the new Gear 360.
The camera was announced alongside the launch of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge on Sunday night at the company's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona.
Samsung said the new camera will be available on or before June 2016.
But it was Facebook that hit the headlines when the social media giant announced some even newer technology for people to experience.
At the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event at MWC on Sunday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered an update on the company's virtual reality initiative.
He also unveilved some advances in the social network's long-term efforts to contribute to the future of commercial virtual reality.
In March 2014, Zuckerberg and Facebook surprised a lot of people by announcing the acquisition of Oculus VR for $1.9 billion in cash and stock.
It pivoted the company into the tech hardware business for the first time.
On Sunday in Barcelona, Zuckerberg Facebook's dynamic streaming technology for 360 video will soon be coming to Samsung's Gear VR.
This increases video resolution by 4x, he said, while reducing the required network bandwidth, so videos in VR look sharper and play faster.
Samsung was rumoured to be coming out with a new Gear VR headset capable of handling 360-degree, surround video.
Several companies demonstrated the eyeball-like 360-degree video cameras that feed the high-definition video to the headsets.
The Facebook CEO also said his company has created a Social VR team focused on developing the future of social interaction in VR.
Part of the team's mission is to find ways for people to connect and share using current VR technology, as well project long-term possibilities for this mode of interaction.
It is understood the Social VR team will work closely with Oculus and other teams at Facebook to build applications for future social VR experiences across all platforms.
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