Releasing a stock Android-powered version of your flagship device appears to be the hot new thing these days. Samsung started it with their Galaxy S4 Google Edition, and HTC followed suit a few weeks later with the ‘HTC One with Nexus User Experience’. Now it appears Sony might be getting in on the action too. An anonymous Sony insider has said that Sony is teaming up with Google to release the Xperia Z Google Edition. While no release date was mentioned, the anonymous insider claimed it would be announced in July.
Obviously, since this is just a rumour, this should be taken with very large grain of salt. But with the other two current major players having already announced stock android models of their main devices, this rumour isn’t that much of a stretch. It is already currently possible to install stock Android on the Sony Xperia Z, thanks to Sony initiating an Android Open Source Project for the device. However, these models aren’t receiving the latest Android firmware updates like the members of the Nexus family and with the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Editions. Since the Sony Xperia Z Google Edition would likely share the same strategy as the Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition and HTC One with Nexus User Experience, the smartphone would probably be only available through the Google Play Store, and be available exclusively for the US market.
Update:
AndroidCentral have just advised that they have confirmed independently with their Sony contacts, that a ‘Google Edition’ Sony Xperia Z is indeed coming soon. The phone will be sold in the U.S through Google Play ‘later in the year’ but they were unable to supply any pricing information but it would be expected to be comparable to the current outright pricing of the Xperia Z.
What do you think? Is there any truth to these rumours? Would you be interested in a Google Edition of the Sony Xperia Z? Let us know in the comments.
Sounds good, especially if they make the ROM available to flash for those of us that already have a Z.
i personally think that xperia z would be much better suited to the stock googles experience, as it has onboard home keys, so turning this into a nexus like device would me super simple.. as oppose to htc one or s4 having the hard keys.. and having to double tap certain buttons to pull up multi taskin just seems cumbersome!
It doesn’t mean much for us, unless Google Play ships these google edition phones to Australia (with Australian 4G bands).
What a joke, nobody cares about Sony.
What a joke, nobody cares about Jake.
Why are Sony always behind on stuff? It’s amazing how they are always behind on electronics. They release electronics a day late and a transistor short. I want to love them but they just make it so damn hard to!
Mate, they aren’t behind on electronics in general, just their phones. They’ve still got a solid phone choice this year though.
Hmm, not like the Sony of old though, Sony used to be innovative and ahead of the game, now most of their audio gear isn’t listed in the “Best of” category. Their Nex series of cameras are pretty decent though and priced well I guess. The Play Station 3 didn’t do anything near as good as the PS2… If people are talking about flagship phones, ones which are top of the heap, it usually involves the S4, the One, the Find 5, iphone 5… and sometimes people finish with “oh yeah, the Xperia Z too… I guess”. The Xperia Z… Read more »
I’ll agree about the PS3. The PS4 is going to have to be a show stopper to make me consider using a console. A lot of people tend to stay away from Sony Xperia devices as they tend to have older hardware then other current flagships. The Z is rocking the S4 pro while it’s counterparts all have SD600’s.
the PS3 didn’t do as well because sony was too innovative. They spent way to much money developing the cell processor making the console uber expensive and hard to develop games for. The PS4 is using a pretty stock X86 based APU from AMD so I think they learn’t their lesson.