MWC 2013: Sony Mobile Wants To Be Number Three In Smartphones

Sony is confident that that the Sony Xperia Z can kickstart a revival at the Japanese company and allow it to become the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.

Stephen Sneeden, product marketing manager at Sony Mobile told TechWeekEurope at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that its latest smartphone was generating great momentum since it was unveiled at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year.

“At CES we launched the Xperia Z and we won 13 awards there. We’ve built some great momentum with the tech media that’s also reaching the consumers now,” he said. “The story that we pitched at CES about combining premium specifications with the best of Sony to give you a super-premium product has been received very well.”

Sony Xperia Z pre-sales

“The number of presales is exceeding any product that we’ve ever made,” he continued. “In Berlin last week, we had one shipment that sold out in a few hours. It’s on sale at the Sony Store in Barcelona, just to make a statement of where we are and that we’re ready to roll out this product.”

Sony is one of a number of manufacturers with ambitions of achieving third spot in 2013 and will have to compete with the likes of BlackBerry, Nokia, HTC and ZTE, but Sneeden believes that people “want” Sony to succeed.

“Right now, Samsung and Apple are number one and two and then number three kind of changes every month,” he said. “We’ve been there, then another manufacturer hops over us and then we take it back. We don’t want to be there, we want to be a clear alternative in the premium space, that’s our aggressive goal and we’re not being ambiguous about that.”

Premium customers

Sony says that it wants to target a ‘tech mature’ type of customer that has the money to spend on a premium product. Sneeden says that this kind of person will be well-informed and will have a checklist of specifications that they want in a smartphone, such as a quality screen, high megapixel camera and fast processor.

“We have to meet all those expectations first but we want to exceed those expectations with the best of Sony,” he said, but he refused to rule out offering cheaper smartphones in an effort to expand its market share.

“Without revealing what’s coming next, it would make sense to us that we would want to attract other price points,” he said, but conceded that it might leave those markets to other smartphone manufacturers.

How much do you know about the iPhone’s rivals? Take our quiz!