For 2 minutes, forget about everything and just imagine an Alien comes to Earth and asks "Hi! I want THE Smartphone with the best specs... Which one should I get?"... A Simple answer is "Xperia XZ Premium". It has the best screen, 4K HDR, Stereo Dual Speakers supporting High Def Audio, can shoot 960 fps at 720p, can shoot 4K HDR at 30 fps, IP68 water resistance, etc... Technically, it's by far the phone with the best specs.
....
And yet, the only thing that we can hear about is Samsung's Note 8 and Apple iPhone 8. And that's because of Sony's bad marketing and absent marketing strategies.
What I will try to explain below is how Sony fails miserably at marketing it's product and even in supporting them.
Btw, my previous phone was the Note 7, and i had to give it back for obvious reasons. Before that I had the xperia mini pro, and before that the xperia mini, and before that a samsung phone. So if one thing is clear, it's that I really can't care less about both companies. It's just a frustration on Sony's weak approach of marketing.
First of all, let see how Samsung handles its marketing.
------------- Samsung:
- The Note 7 exploded because they couldn't fit a Battery into the phone properly. And yet, they didn't even bother Re-branding. They just recalled, apologized and moved on. They even re-released the same phone as Note FE. And the Note 8 is the most expected phone right now. They faced a Tsunami, they didn't even flinch, they just surfed on it.
- Samsung is advertising its S8, S8 plus and Note 8 Infinity Display like they invented some kind of teleportation device. They even came up with the slogan "Unbox Your phone!" cause their latest phones have no bezels, even though they totally have bezels on the top and bottom and very little on the sides. But hey! Who cares! They somehow managed to make everyone jump on the bandwagon and love that useless overly extended display which has no use for media whatsoever.
- Next, Samsung brings a new Resolution! QHD+ Resolution which is 2960 x 1440. Yes. QHD+. And yet... THERE IS NOT EVEN ANY MEDIA FILE AT THAT RESOLUTION!!!! Not one video, not one wallpaper, nothing. There's no media for that Resolution. Even QHD is not a widely adopted resolution. 4K is by far more popular. But Samsung doesn't care. The S8 and S8 Plus show digital bezels to play any media with usual resolutions. You could fit the media to the screen but then you will lose some top and bottom pixels on your image or video. But does Samsung care? Does anyone care? Of course not. It's Marketing. "Hey! We brought more Pixels! It's QHD+". That's exactly like Apple's "Retina Display". Just name a Resolution and make it sound like you invented something new, although it's completely useless.
- Samsung bought Harman. You know the company that excels in Audio. So you'd expect that the Note 8 will come with excellent Dual Speakers for better audio experience right? Well, of course not. The Note 8 will come with the same useless speaker they use on any of their device since Samsung was founded. But instead, what they will do is make you pay more for the Note 8 cause they added earbuds. Harman earbuds. The Note 8 new feature: Harman earbuds we put next to it. It could have been worse though. They could have put the earbuds IN the Note 8 itself. Oh! They already did something like that with a Stylus.
- The S-Pen. If you like the Note, it's because of the S-Pen right? You'd think "yeah the S-Pen is awesome. Very productive tool, you can draw, etc...". Well, did you know that ALL the features of the S-Pen (like the 4096 pressures sensitivity) actually belong to the S-Pen itself? And that the Note, neither its display, has nothing to do with it? Think of it like Samsung is selling you a Stylus, but makes the Note look like a whole unit with the S-Pen just because they opened a hole inside to put the pen in it. And guess what you have less of, because of that pen? Less battery. Ask yourself this. Imagine you have a smartphone like the note, and they tell you, "hey, buy this stylus. It's useful. But we will open your phone, take some features out and put the pen inside cause we dont want you to carry it in your pocket". What would you say? But if a marketing manager elaborates the principle and put it differently, you'd say "YEAH!". (Even I did. I bought the Note 7 cause of that Pen).
And that's Samsung for you. Marketing. They are no different than Apple. They sell you yesterday's technology, and tell you that it's the new hot thing and you should buy it. If you're not a Tech enthusiast, you will fall for it easy. (Ok. They're not as bad as Apple. But still, every year they get closer and closer to Apple's marketing strategy).
Now it's time to see how Sony handle things...
----------------- Sony:
(where to start...)
- 4K HDR Display. Everywhere on the internet you will read "4K useless on a phone, you can't see the difference between a 4k and a HD display". You will read "LCD is not good for VR because of this and that". Both of these statements are false.
First let start with the 4K perceivable or not: Once you watched a 4K video on the XZ premium, you know you saw the difference. You know. Anyone that watched a video on the XZP knows. But does any other person on the planet know? Of course not. Why? Cause Sony didn't bother telling them. I mean, look at Samsung's new slogan for the Note 8: "Do bigger things". "Unbox Your Phone". So where's Sony's Slogan for the 4K Display? Where is the marketing strategy pushing the idea that 4K on a phone is not only perceivable, but it's now essential and if your phone doesn't have it, it's garbage cause you will miss all the media of the world. Even Youtube is 4K now! Well, Sony didn't bother. They just don't care. So no Slogan. Nothing. The only thing they could come up with is "4K HDR looks nice, please buy our phone".
Second, let see how the XZP does in VR and what is the fuss about LCD and VR. Samsung is pushing VR like a pregnant woman giving birth to twins. And yet, their QHD+ resolution is still weak for a VR headset. But the Xperia XZ Premium has a 4K Display. And once you try 4K VR, you understand that 4K is THE Resolution VR needs. And that rumor which says "LCD Display is no good for VR" is completely false. You understand it when you try and see it. But let say you couldn't try it to see it for yourself. Then here's a piece of information that will help you know. Pimax (which is a VR company that designs VR headsets for PC, competing with Occulus and HTC) is now releasing a VR headset with 8K resolution. The Display they use is an LCD display.
So, all these said. What has Sony have to say about that? You'd expect a Sony VR Headset and a lot of noise on that awesome 4K VR. I am sure you all tried 4K VR with a 3rd party headset right? You'd think Sony would push the XZP VR capabilities even further. Well they don't. Sony just doesn't like doing things. It's boring for them.
Maybe you may think "Yeah but Samsung has Occulus behind them". True. But I wonder what Sony has in their own ecosystem... Hmmmm... What was that thing called again? PLAYSTATION? and even Playstation VR with many VR titles???? But no. Sony wouldn't do that. It would be wrong to advertise the most capable Smartphone in the market and support it with its own ecosystem. Let 3rd party software and headsets worry about VR and all. Sony doesn't even need compliance with Google Daydream. They're fine. Leave Sony alone.
- Stereo Dual Speakers supporting High Definition Audio. Of course Sony puts only the best in its phone. As a hardware. But what about the software? I mean, if there was a volume problem with these speakers, Sony would immediately remedy that right? Right? RIGHT? Cause they support their product and care right? Naaaah. Just go to the google playstore and find some 3rd party app to increase that volume you are so fond of. Don't bother Sony!
- Sony has the best camera sensors. Even Samsung buys Sony camera sensors. And in the XZP they put an excellent Camera that can shoot 960fps at 720p. And 4k HDR at 30 fps. But what if somehow, their awesome, (no sarcasm), wide lens had such a distortion, (which is completely normal btw), that some may see it as an issue? Cause you know that a wide angle camera that tries to get anything will obviously distort the image and this must be fixed with a software right? RIGHT? I mean Sony would have thought to code a proper software for that... Right? Of course not. Forget about that, they don't even advertise there slow motion camera properly. Why would they care about that? Instead, enjoy a nice paragraph where Sony explains that this distortion is normal and acceptable in the current market. Of course writing 1 paragraph is way easier than writing codes and then updating the phone etc... Stop annoying Sony with your useless demands.
- Sony has the best possible ecosystem any phone manufacturer would dream of. Samsung's Occulus? Laught at that. Sony has PLAYSTATION! Yes. I don't know if you heard of it, but Playstation belongs to Sony. I specifically write it down, because if you know Sony only from the Xperia phones, than you may not have heard about that. You see, Samsung automatically starts the Occulus app when you put it in the GearVR which is a Samsung Headset made in collaboration with Occulus. They do it so you feel like their VR experience belongs to an ecosystem. Does Sony's Playstation, which belongs to "Sony", (no really, it does), collaborated with the Xperia department, (which also belongs to Sony), to push VR headsets on Xperia devices and completely destroy any competition because they have like all the titles they need? No. Sony doesn't care about that. They don't like to do... things. They have enough money. Stop annoying them with your nonsense childish requests.
- Forget about VR. Sony has an excellent service called Playstation Now, which streams PS3 games onto your PC. They could easily make it available on any Xperia device. How I know that? Cause a company called Liquidsky is now doing it with PC Games. Yes you can play streamed PC games on your android. And no, there's no latency. I played and finished a PS3 Sony exclusive title called "Beyond two souls" on my windows 10 laptop. Yes I streamed the game from a country that is not supported by the Playstation Now cause its too far, and played and finished the game with almost zero latency. So will Sony bring that to the XPZ or any other Xperia device? Of course not. Sony doesn't like to do... things. It's boring to them. They'd have to make an APP for that. Oh oh oh slow down. They already made an App for PC last year. It's not like they gonna make an app every year for a different device!
------------------------------------ Conclusion:
If Samsung had released a 4K Device with dual speakers, and had a department called Playstation I can't tell you what would happen to the world: Samsung would declare that they now possess the Korean government and would start to engulf neighboring countries. And no one would resist them cause everyone would be too busy playing 4K Playstation games in VR on their Note 13 devices.
Sony's marketing is so terrible and misses so many opportunities that even that Alien mentioned earlier would think that Samsung makes better phones and would opt for that S8 Plus cause it has a big display.
I am sure that there are many many so called "Logical" and "Rational" explanations why Sony fails so bad in marketing. But it doesn't matter, cause they are just failing and I don't think that Disney will come and fix their next Xperia phone for them.
....
And yet, the only thing that we can hear about is Samsung's Note 8 and Apple iPhone 8. And that's because of Sony's bad marketing and absent marketing strategies.
What I will try to explain below is how Sony fails miserably at marketing it's product and even in supporting them.
Btw, my previous phone was the Note 7, and i had to give it back for obvious reasons. Before that I had the xperia mini pro, and before that the xperia mini, and before that a samsung phone. So if one thing is clear, it's that I really can't care less about both companies. It's just a frustration on Sony's weak approach of marketing.
First of all, let see how Samsung handles its marketing.
------------- Samsung:
- The Note 7 exploded because they couldn't fit a Battery into the phone properly. And yet, they didn't even bother Re-branding. They just recalled, apologized and moved on. They even re-released the same phone as Note FE. And the Note 8 is the most expected phone right now. They faced a Tsunami, they didn't even flinch, they just surfed on it.
- Samsung is advertising its S8, S8 plus and Note 8 Infinity Display like they invented some kind of teleportation device. They even came up with the slogan "Unbox Your phone!" cause their latest phones have no bezels, even though they totally have bezels on the top and bottom and very little on the sides. But hey! Who cares! They somehow managed to make everyone jump on the bandwagon and love that useless overly extended display which has no use for media whatsoever.
- Next, Samsung brings a new Resolution! QHD+ Resolution which is 2960 x 1440. Yes. QHD+. And yet... THERE IS NOT EVEN ANY MEDIA FILE AT THAT RESOLUTION!!!! Not one video, not one wallpaper, nothing. There's no media for that Resolution. Even QHD is not a widely adopted resolution. 4K is by far more popular. But Samsung doesn't care. The S8 and S8 Plus show digital bezels to play any media with usual resolutions. You could fit the media to the screen but then you will lose some top and bottom pixels on your image or video. But does Samsung care? Does anyone care? Of course not. It's Marketing. "Hey! We brought more Pixels! It's QHD+". That's exactly like Apple's "Retina Display". Just name a Resolution and make it sound like you invented something new, although it's completely useless.
- Samsung bought Harman. You know the company that excels in Audio. So you'd expect that the Note 8 will come with excellent Dual Speakers for better audio experience right? Well, of course not. The Note 8 will come with the same useless speaker they use on any of their device since Samsung was founded. But instead, what they will do is make you pay more for the Note 8 cause they added earbuds. Harman earbuds. The Note 8 new feature: Harman earbuds we put next to it. It could have been worse though. They could have put the earbuds IN the Note 8 itself. Oh! They already did something like that with a Stylus.
- The S-Pen. If you like the Note, it's because of the S-Pen right? You'd think "yeah the S-Pen is awesome. Very productive tool, you can draw, etc...". Well, did you know that ALL the features of the S-Pen (like the 4096 pressures sensitivity) actually belong to the S-Pen itself? And that the Note, neither its display, has nothing to do with it? Think of it like Samsung is selling you a Stylus, but makes the Note look like a whole unit with the S-Pen just because they opened a hole inside to put the pen in it. And guess what you have less of, because of that pen? Less battery. Ask yourself this. Imagine you have a smartphone like the note, and they tell you, "hey, buy this stylus. It's useful. But we will open your phone, take some features out and put the pen inside cause we dont want you to carry it in your pocket". What would you say? But if a marketing manager elaborates the principle and put it differently, you'd say "YEAH!". (Even I did. I bought the Note 7 cause of that Pen).
And that's Samsung for you. Marketing. They are no different than Apple. They sell you yesterday's technology, and tell you that it's the new hot thing and you should buy it. If you're not a Tech enthusiast, you will fall for it easy. (Ok. They're not as bad as Apple. But still, every year they get closer and closer to Apple's marketing strategy).
Now it's time to see how Sony handle things...
----------------- Sony:
(where to start...)
- 4K HDR Display. Everywhere on the internet you will read "4K useless on a phone, you can't see the difference between a 4k and a HD display". You will read "LCD is not good for VR because of this and that". Both of these statements are false.
First let start with the 4K perceivable or not: Once you watched a 4K video on the XZ premium, you know you saw the difference. You know. Anyone that watched a video on the XZP knows. But does any other person on the planet know? Of course not. Why? Cause Sony didn't bother telling them. I mean, look at Samsung's new slogan for the Note 8: "Do bigger things". "Unbox Your Phone". So where's Sony's Slogan for the 4K Display? Where is the marketing strategy pushing the idea that 4K on a phone is not only perceivable, but it's now essential and if your phone doesn't have it, it's garbage cause you will miss all the media of the world. Even Youtube is 4K now! Well, Sony didn't bother. They just don't care. So no Slogan. Nothing. The only thing they could come up with is "4K HDR looks nice, please buy our phone".
Second, let see how the XZP does in VR and what is the fuss about LCD and VR. Samsung is pushing VR like a pregnant woman giving birth to twins. And yet, their QHD+ resolution is still weak for a VR headset. But the Xperia XZ Premium has a 4K Display. And once you try 4K VR, you understand that 4K is THE Resolution VR needs. And that rumor which says "LCD Display is no good for VR" is completely false. You understand it when you try and see it. But let say you couldn't try it to see it for yourself. Then here's a piece of information that will help you know. Pimax (which is a VR company that designs VR headsets for PC, competing with Occulus and HTC) is now releasing a VR headset with 8K resolution. The Display they use is an LCD display.
So, all these said. What has Sony have to say about that? You'd expect a Sony VR Headset and a lot of noise on that awesome 4K VR. I am sure you all tried 4K VR with a 3rd party headset right? You'd think Sony would push the XZP VR capabilities even further. Well they don't. Sony just doesn't like doing things. It's boring for them.
Maybe you may think "Yeah but Samsung has Occulus behind them". True. But I wonder what Sony has in their own ecosystem... Hmmmm... What was that thing called again? PLAYSTATION? and even Playstation VR with many VR titles???? But no. Sony wouldn't do that. It would be wrong to advertise the most capable Smartphone in the market and support it with its own ecosystem. Let 3rd party software and headsets worry about VR and all. Sony doesn't even need compliance with Google Daydream. They're fine. Leave Sony alone.
- Stereo Dual Speakers supporting High Definition Audio. Of course Sony puts only the best in its phone. As a hardware. But what about the software? I mean, if there was a volume problem with these speakers, Sony would immediately remedy that right? Right? RIGHT? Cause they support their product and care right? Naaaah. Just go to the google playstore and find some 3rd party app to increase that volume you are so fond of. Don't bother Sony!
- Sony has the best camera sensors. Even Samsung buys Sony camera sensors. And in the XZP they put an excellent Camera that can shoot 960fps at 720p. And 4k HDR at 30 fps. But what if somehow, their awesome, (no sarcasm), wide lens had such a distortion, (which is completely normal btw), that some may see it as an issue? Cause you know that a wide angle camera that tries to get anything will obviously distort the image and this must be fixed with a software right? RIGHT? I mean Sony would have thought to code a proper software for that... Right? Of course not. Forget about that, they don't even advertise there slow motion camera properly. Why would they care about that? Instead, enjoy a nice paragraph where Sony explains that this distortion is normal and acceptable in the current market. Of course writing 1 paragraph is way easier than writing codes and then updating the phone etc... Stop annoying Sony with your useless demands.
- Sony has the best possible ecosystem any phone manufacturer would dream of. Samsung's Occulus? Laught at that. Sony has PLAYSTATION! Yes. I don't know if you heard of it, but Playstation belongs to Sony. I specifically write it down, because if you know Sony only from the Xperia phones, than you may not have heard about that. You see, Samsung automatically starts the Occulus app when you put it in the GearVR which is a Samsung Headset made in collaboration with Occulus. They do it so you feel like their VR experience belongs to an ecosystem. Does Sony's Playstation, which belongs to "Sony", (no really, it does), collaborated with the Xperia department, (which also belongs to Sony), to push VR headsets on Xperia devices and completely destroy any competition because they have like all the titles they need? No. Sony doesn't care about that. They don't like to do... things. They have enough money. Stop annoying them with your nonsense childish requests.
- Forget about VR. Sony has an excellent service called Playstation Now, which streams PS3 games onto your PC. They could easily make it available on any Xperia device. How I know that? Cause a company called Liquidsky is now doing it with PC Games. Yes you can play streamed PC games on your android. And no, there's no latency. I played and finished a PS3 Sony exclusive title called "Beyond two souls" on my windows 10 laptop. Yes I streamed the game from a country that is not supported by the Playstation Now cause its too far, and played and finished the game with almost zero latency. So will Sony bring that to the XPZ or any other Xperia device? Of course not. Sony doesn't like to do... things. It's boring to them. They'd have to make an APP for that. Oh oh oh slow down. They already made an App for PC last year. It's not like they gonna make an app every year for a different device!
------------------------------------ Conclusion:
If Samsung had released a 4K Device with dual speakers, and had a department called Playstation I can't tell you what would happen to the world: Samsung would declare that they now possess the Korean government and would start to engulf neighboring countries. And no one would resist them cause everyone would be too busy playing 4K Playstation games in VR on their Note 13 devices.
Sony's marketing is so terrible and misses so many opportunities that even that Alien mentioned earlier would think that Samsung makes better phones and would opt for that S8 Plus cause it has a big display.
I am sure that there are many many so called "Logical" and "Rational" explanations why Sony fails so bad in marketing. But it doesn't matter, cause they are just failing and I don't think that Disney will come and fix their next Xperia phone for them.
