Sony Ericsson can be disappointed with the way the Xperia Play performed and nothing seems to go their way, with other smartphones recording just as poor results. While their flagship phone is selling less than they’ve expected, the reasons for this sudden meltdown range from wrong demographics, to intrinsic flaws, such as the mediocre display and video recording.
The aim was to release a smartphone that will fare just as well as a gaming console and in order to achieve that, they’ve incorporated the gamepad. Xperia Play users will definitely love this addition, but although it will enhance the gaming experience, it is simply not enough to compete with the latest PSP. Branded as a quality smartphone with obvious gaming abilities, the Xperia Play was destined to charm the public between 20 and 30 years old.
Unfortunately, most of the buyers were teenagers, and this category is not enough to sustain the high level of sales anticipated by Sony Ericsson. Few youngsters can force the hand of their parents to buy them a gadget that is around $800 without a contract, as the latter couldn’t care less than the Xperia Play is just as good as a smartphone as it is a portable console. There are simply less-expensive phones that a teenager could be presented with as a gift and most of them have enough games to download to keep him busy.
Games will run decently on Sony’s latest release, but the problem is that it comes preloaded with very few titles, which means more money spend to download new titles. Like if this wasn’t enough, the display is lacking in brightness greatly, which makes each game difficult to play outside, even if not in direct sunlight. It’s a huge problem for a console/smartphone hybrid which is supposed to be very versatile.
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