Re: SONY Windows Phone 8.1 devices suggested June release tweeted by Tom Warren
They didn't sell the brand name. But just their hardware division pretty much
Actually Sony did sell the VAIO brand too. They sold the division with everything within it. What they spinned-off was their TV division.
Sony phones are very expensive.
They are also very good. It's one of those things where the price is justified by the quality and elegance of the hardware. But they are definitely not phones for emerging markets. In that sense, Sony's offerings are more in like with Apple's offerings than Nokia's.
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I will keep cautions about these rumours about Sony Windows Phones. Their phones are the ones I will be jumping to once Nokia leaves the mobile manufacturing business, regardless of them being Android or not. However, well, if Sony gives me a Z2 Compact running Windows Phone, I might just as well stay within the same OS I've been using.
I just don't believe a Sony phone will come that soon. There are more difficult things to be negotiated between Microsoft and Sony when it comes to producing a WP than the licencing fees.
There's the entire matter of Xbox VS PlayStation. The console wars has reflections on both companies mobile services. Sony has on their phones, and for PlayStation, the same thing Microsoft currently has on Windows Phones with Xbox (Music, Video and Games).
For Sony to produce Windows Phones, Microsoft will have to allow them to remove the Xbox offerings from the OS (which with 8.1 IS possible) and have them replaced with Sony's PlayStation offerings. Will Microsoft concede to that? That's the biggest IF when it comes to the production of a Windows Phone by Sony.
Of course, it would be possible for Sony to release the phone with Xbox stuff in it. I just don't think Sony is that stupid and definitely isn't that desperate.
We'll wait and see. Also, Sony renews their flagships every 6 months on Android (that's why if you want to have always the latest specs on Android, you go Sony)...if they do the same cycle with Windows Phones, I can see a lot of people complaining "but I just bought this flagship 4 months ago!".
Well, fingers crossed...