Sony was once a top tier Android device maker, but the company's smartphone division (Sony Mobile) has seen better days. After years of decreasing sales and market share, the company downsized its smartphone division in 2019. Sony has chosen to "defocus" on the Indian, North American and South American markets. Instead, Sony's focus regions are now Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and Hong Kong. This year, the company has launched the flagship Sony Xperia 1, the compact flagship Sony Xperia 5, and the mid-range Sony Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus (review). Its most recent phone launch was the Xperia 8 in Japan, which had very low-end specifications. The company's popularity can't hope to match Chinese device makers like Xiaomi and OnePlus, but Sony still regards itself as a premium device maker. The company's phones run on a lightly skinned version of Android, instead of running a full-blown custom user interface such as MIUI, so users have been expecting to see details regarding the Android 10 update rollout. Now, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has revealed the Android 10 update plans for Sony's recent smartphones.
It should be noted that Sony hasn't officially revealed anything regarding the Android 10 update, and the rollout details may well be different for global variants of its phones. The list that DoCoMo posted includes the following Sony devices:
- Sony Xperia XZ2
- Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact
- Sony Xperia XZ2 Premiuim
- Sony Xperia XZ3
- Sony Xperia 1
- Sony Xperia 5
- Sony Xperia Ace
The Android 10 update list covers most of Sony's launches in 2018 and 2019. Notably, the Xperia 10 and the Xperia 10 Plus are missing, but the phones are not sold by DoCoMo. Similarly, the newly launched Xperia 8 is offered by Y!mobile and not DoCoMo, which explains its absence on the list. The Sony Xperia Ace is a compact 5-inch, Snapdragon 630-powered phone that is exclusively offered by DoCoMo. It was launched in May this year.
The Xperia XZ2 series launched with Android 8.0 Oreo, which means they will get two full Android version updates, in line with industry expectations. The Xperia XZ3, Xperia 1, and the Xperia 5 were launched with Android 9 Pie out of the box. The Sony Xperia XZ Premium and the Sony Xperia XZ1/Xperia XZ1 Compact are conspicuously absent on the list. In particular, the Xperia XZ1 and the Xperia XZ1 Compact both launched with Android 8.0, and they received an update to Android 9 Pie. It seems these phones aren't meant to receive the Android 10 update, which means they will only have received one Android version update in their life cycle. That would be equivalent to just one year of software support. These phones were flagship releases in the second half of 2017. We expected more from Sony, as this is very disappointing to see.
Sony is expected to release details about the Android 10 update roll-out for global variants in the coming weeks.
Source: NTT DoCoMo
Via: GSMArena