Sony Xperia Z selling out in some countries

Initial sales and pre-orders for Sony’s Xperia Z are said to be very positive, according to Sony Mobile's Calum MacDougall, head of Xperia marketing.

Available for just under £600 in the UK, Sony’s water and dust resistant Xperia Z smartphone has been receiving rave reviews since journalists and bloggers first got their hands on it. And rightly so, too: it has everything you’d expect from a seminal handset – high-end specs, excellent design and a completely overhauled UX.

Speaking to Reuters, Sony Mobile's Calum MacDougall, head of Xperia marketing, said: ‘We have seen really good pre-orders. We had the first stocks available in Germany in Berlin at the Sony store and sold those out in two hours.’

In Japan Sony did even better selling over 150,000 units in a week, earning the Xperia Z 24 per cent of the market straight away, according to MacDougall. Strong sales aside, Sony still has a long way to go before it closes the gap between itself and Samsung, the latter controls 22.7 per cent of the market while Sony accounts for just 1.7 per cent.

‘The Sony Xperia Z is a valuable shop window for Sony’s premium content services. These are front and center of the device user experience and an important point of differentiation over the majority of its device rivals,’ said Ovum analyst Tom Cripps.

He added: ‘Whether or not Sony can fully capitalize on its revived opportunity remains to be seen. However, its broad asset portfolio, which also includes the newly-launched PlayStation 4, should have increasing resonance with important segments of the broader consumer technology market.’

Sony also debuted its Xperia Tablet Z at MWC 2013, a 10.1-inch slate device that runs Android Jelly Bean and is also dust and water resistant. Check out our first look review of the Xperia Tablet Z and our Sony Xperia Z review.