Sony to ditch 'Premium Standard' phones, will launch two Xperia flagships later in 2017

We have reported in the past that Sony is sticking with its plans to release new Xperia smartphones, even though company executives have admitted the handsets won’t likely compete, at least in terms of sales, with rival products from Samsung and Apple. Now there’s word that the company is preparing to launch two new flagship Xperia phones later this year. At the same time, it also plans to end sales of new phones in its Premium Standard category.

Xperia Blog reports that Sony made these announcements this week as part of an investor conference presentation in Tokyo. In a slide that was shown during that presentation, Sony indicated that two new flagships would launch in the second half of Sony’s fiscal 2017 year, which began on April 1. These phones would be in the same category as the previously announced Xperia XZ Premium and XZs.

Sony offered no information on what these new flagships will be like, but based on the slide it’s likely they would launch sometime this fall. Sony typically makes new reveals in its Xperia lineup at the IFA trade show in Berlin, which this year takes place in early September.

The slide also confirms Sony will no longer offer new phones in the Premium Standard category, in order to concentrate the company’s efforts on “high value-added flagship models.” The Premium Standard phones have hardware and prices that are in between flagship and mid-range models. In Sony’s case, that means it does not plan to launch successors to its older Xperia X and Xperia X Compact handsets.

Do you agree with Sony’s decision to focus more on flagship models? Let us know what you think in the comments!