After the divorce with Ericsson, Sony started making its own Android smartphones and has already managed to release not just one or two, but dozens of them. After the launch of the Sony Xperia S we thought they’d make a couple of mid-range phones and maybe a couple of high-end ones in 2012 – and that’s all. But no, Sony’s announcing new Xperia smartphones one after another, and now a new one has leaked – the Sony Xperia SL.
The new device was noticed in the database of the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and unfortunately, we don’t know anything about it other than its name. Perhaps it’s just a follow-up to the famous Xperia S or some altered version of it offering another set of 3G/4G radios and maybe some general upgrades.
But right now the features of this new phone don’t really matter, since the question is – is it really a good idea to release such a big number of smartphones one after another? There are already too many Xperia phones in Sony’s range: Xperia S, Xperia Miro, Xperia Ion, Xperia Sola, Xpera U, Xperia P, Xperia GX (these are what I could remember, but I guess there are more)… And now Xperia SL! I guess this is really confusing, and many users won’t even be able to remember the features of these phones and distinguish them from one another.
There was a time when HTC also used to follow the same strategy – they released a huge number of different smartphones, and even most geeks couldn’t navigate through them. I guess that was one of the main reasons of HTC’s crush – people preferred to buy an iPhone (Apple releases one phone a year, so you don’t have to think which one o buy, you choose the newest one) or one of Samsung’s high-end devices like the Galaxy S2/S3 (since they’re too recognizable!), and no one wanted to think which one of those 10-15 HTC phones was the best at the moment.
Later HTC understood it wasn’t quite a good idea to have so many similar smartphones in their portfolio and they changed their strategy. I’m afraid if Sony continues making so many different phones, they’ll soon face HTC’s fate.
So it’s nice that they’re trying to make good smartphones, but whatever features this Xperia SL comes with, it will be just another Xperia phone.
Maybe it would be better for Sony to direct all their forces to make one really powerful device able to compete with the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S3? What do you think?
