For all the hype over all-singing, all-dancing household appliances – transparent fridges, crystal-festooned televisions – attention at this year’s IFA in Berlin concentrated on the digital era’s bread-and-butter products: new smartphones and tablets, wrapped up in lofty promises that these devices, far from clogging up our already frazzled brains, are passports to a brave new world of technology transcendence.
As usual, there was no sign of Apple in the German capital for the consumer electronics trade show, allowing the other big players to launch their own devices before the new iPhone ruined everything.
Samsung stole the show again, this time with its new Note 4 and Note Edge, with an eye-catching curved screen.
But the try-hardest prize has to go to Sony. Ranked 87th on the Fortune 500, the 68- year-old Japanese corporation is hardly a shaggy-dog start-up. Yet when it comes to consumer electronics, even high-ranking executives admit the Walkman inventor has spent too long as a tech also-ran.
Last year in Berlin, Sony president and chief executive Kazuo Hirai promised a new era – ending "death by committee" product development and forcing company divisions to supply each other with cutting-edge components that scream – jargon alert – "Sonyness". On a massive stage, he presented the first product he thinks captures this "Sonyness" spirit: the flagship Xperia Z3 mobile phone.
‘Meaningful innovation’
The company’s managers say they are focused on “meaningful innovation”, giving users features they asked for rather than pointless updates that simulate innovation to meet market expectations.
It has a 5.2in HD screen and weighs just 152g. The Xperia team has also improved the phone’s unique selling point – it’s waterproof (read: toilet-proof) – and addressed the number-one smartphone user gripe: battery life.
"We see a lot of people looking for sockets everywhere but our phone delivers battery life of up to two days," said Sony senior product manager Jun Makino.
"Up to" is an elastic term in the electronics business and The Irish Times had no chance to test the claim. But Sony says it has broken the one-day smartphone barrier on three fronts: a new high-density battery, a more efficient Snapdragon processor, and a new "power efficient display solution".
Put simply, the display “caches” what is on the screen to conserve power rather than perpetually updating and draining the battery. There is also a “battery stamina” mode, which Sony says quadruples battery time by shutting down all but essential functions in standby mode.
Dismissive of novelties
The phone is slimmer and lighter than previous models, yet solid in the hand. It draws in Cybershot and Handycam technology and the 20 megapixel camera is, Sony says, a leader in the field. Sony is dismissive of novelties offered by competitors, focusing on three solid Xperia phones: the Z3, the Xperia compact and the low-cost E3.
“What we believe in is innovation that is relevant for the consumer,” said Makino. “Innovation is only important if it has meaning for the user.”
Given this confidence at delivering solid, well-engineered products that can speak for themselves, why is Sony promising products that “make lives more fulfilling” and deliver “emotional relevance”? What does “emotional relevance” even mean?
“What we believe we are making is . . . innovation that is relevant and that we hope will trigger more emotional acceptance of it,” said Makino. “That you would feel happy about, that when you hold it you would get that emotional connection to it. It’s for people to judge.”
Given that Apple and Samsung are no slouches in the technology field or the industrial engineering fetish department, Sony is quietly confident that only it can deliver on “Sonyness”: products that scream premium design and 60 years of experience in the field.
