All the biggest names in tech flew out to Mobile World Congress this week to launch their latest gadgets, with the HTC One M9, Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge grabbing headlines.
But one device that failed to make an appearance was Sony’s Xperia Z4. The Japanese company outed its Xperia Z4 tablet, but the new flagship handset was nowhere to be seen.
While
it was previously thought that Sony had changed its release cycle from
6-month to a more conventional 12-month, the company’s recent comments
suggest otherwise.
Speaking to the press, Sony’s PR chief
Tim Harrison confirmed that the Xperia Z4 is on the way and won’t
launch a full 12 months after its predecessor. The Sony Xperia Z3 arrived last September, so our guess is it could drop this summer.
Supporting that prediction are comments from Sony’s director of Xperia Marketing Calum MacDougall. Speaking to TrustedReviews, he said “The replacement ratio [on our flagship phones] is about six months.”
This would suggest the Z4 is heading for a March or April unveiling, so we expect to see more of the new flagship real soon.
If
so, why didn’t Sony take the Z4 to the Barcelona tradeshow? Well,
according to Sony the Z3 is still doing really well, despite reports
that its mobile arm is struggling and set to layoff as many as 1000
employees.
When the Z4 does arrive, rumours suggest it
will launch as part of a trio; including a smaller version as well as a
larger phablet version.
