This particular sign may not augur well for the Japanese smartphone manufacturer, but the flagship smartphone of Sony, the Xperia Z4, which was launched in April and made it to the retail market in Japan only on June 10, is already out of the list of the top five best-selling smartphones in the country.
The top five of the list is now being dominated by the various models of the iPhone 6 based on the different offers of Japanese carriers. The Xperia Z4 has slipped to the seventh and eight spots as offered by two distinct Japanese carriers NTT DoCoMo and AU by KDDI, respectively, while one of its predecessor models, the Xperia Z3 Compact held on to the No. 6 spot, details the GSM Arena.
When the latest Sony flagship smartphone was released to the Japanese retail market early in June, it immediately debuted in the list as No. 1 and No. 2 best-selling smartphones among the Japanese.
The slip in the rankings did not surprise Sony any longer since immediately after the release of the Xperia Z4, consumers already started complaining about the device overheating at times, which was the same problem with the international variant of the Sony Xperia Z3+ when it was launched last year.
It was both surprising and disappointing for users that Sony has not addressed the problem with the Xperia Z4 when it was already a glaring flaw with its predecessor model, the Xperia Z3. The Japanese handset maker promised users that it will release an update soon to fix the overheating problem on the device in the next couple of weeks.
Sony Xperia Z4 Compact
Meanwhile, there have been recent reports that the Sony Xperia Z4 Compact, the smaller variant of the company’s latest flagship smartphone, will be released before the end of the year following sightings of leaked specifications of the device, according to the Phone Arena.
The device, which is said to be disguised as the Sony E5663 in the leak reports, features a 4.6-inch screen with 1080-pixel resolution. It is powered by a high-performance MediaTek processor, a 3GB RAM and an internal storage of 16GB. It is said to have a 20.7-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 13-megapixel front snapper.
According to latest reports, Sony will eventually replace the MediaTek chipset with a high-end Qualcomm processor, which may either be the Snapdragon 808 or the Snapdragon 810, for the smartphone’s eventual global release.
Compared with the specifications and features of the Xperia Z3 Compact, it seems that the pocket-friendly Xperia Z4 Compact is what the company needs to boost its market presence following the seeming short-lived sales run of the Sony Xperia Z4 in Japan last month.
Sony Xperia Z4v
While the Sony Xperia Z4 has already been rolled out in Japan last month, the latest flagship smartphone from the Japanese tech company has yet to hit other retail markets in the world as of this time.
There have been previous reports that the handset or its big brother the Xperia Z4 Ultra, or its small brother the Xperia Z4 Compact, or all three of them, would be hitting other retail markets outside of Japan in May but that did not materialize at all.
It was an opportune time for Sony to launch its latest flagship in May since both Samsung and HTC already rolled up their respective flagship smartphones in the retail markets in April, and so were some of the small players too.
Everyone in the tech community was wondering what has been keeping the Sony Xperia Z4 and its sister phones from finally rolling out to the retail markets as they are already long overdue.