At MWC 2016 this year, Sony is taking a novel approach to the way we use technology in the real world, rather than a smartphone packed full of “more and more features that no-one will use”.
The Xperia Ear, for example, is a wireless earbud that acts as a combination voice recognition microphone and smart assistant speaker. Imagine a tiny, almost hidden Bluetooth headset that talks in your ear to tell you your schedule, alert you when you have new notifications, and that can be controlled with voice commands to send messages or start phone calls. It’ll be rolling out around the world in a few months — around summer in Europe, which starts from May.
Also on show was the Xperia Eye, a clippable body camera not too dissimilar to the HTC Re that Sony sees people wearing as part of their outfit, capturing wide-angle shots of their day-to-day lives to later be shared with friends or family. The same concept is true of the Xperia Projector except instead of capturing footage, it plays it back.
So, rather than a new flagship phone or a new tablet, Sony’s thinking about entirely different ways to enter the crowded market. Also announced was the new mid-range Xperia X series smartphone range, with “Predictive Hybrid Autofocus”, which it says will do a better job at tracking motion during photography and video recording than the current sorry crop of smartphone cameras.
“Introducing the new range of range of Xperia products and concepts – Xperia Eye, Xperia Ear, Xperia Projector and Xperia Agent” #SonyMWC
— Sony Xperia News (@SonyMobileNews) February 22, 2016
Want that Xperia agent robot concept NOW pic.twitter.com/JJhNUu4ukv
— Raymond Wong (@raywongy) February 22, 2016