Sony is unarguably one of the first players in the smartphone market. They shaped up the Android platform with their Xperia lineup but their phones aren’t really doing well as of 2018. Xperia devices once known to lead smartphone innovation are now just following trends instead of making them. This, however, is to change soon. As per a report by Letsgodigital, Sony has patented a transparent screen phone. Now before we jump to conclusions first we have to talk about the idea itself. Transparent smartphones have been a concept idolized by many to be the future of computing.
With Samsung and Sony joining the foldable smartphone bandwagon, Sony has decided to take a different path here. Since smartphone markets have exploded these past few years and with Chinese contenders doing exceptionally well even outside Asia, Sony here would certainly want to avail this opportunity. Xperia phones by Sony haven’t crunched any numbers and this might be a good time for them to step up their game.
One of the most challenging hurdles will be to actually develop a display with transparent features. The Mi8 explorer edition featured a transparent display which caught a lot of attention but making a completely transparent device will definitely require a lot of brainstorming. Sony out of all has a long history with smartphones and if they somehow deliver this in the next few years then they may very well have the opportunity to corner the premium market space. The latest Xperia XZ smartphone didn’t really stand out of the competition but things definitely have the potential to change. With Samsung already working tirelessly to bring under-screen sensors to the consumers, we may very well have a completely transparent design.
One of the major hurdles will be durability and the hardware used will certainly not come cheap. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon being announced in a few days, a project like this will require special treatment. Given the leaks reported for the XZ 4, we expect Sony to handle this project differently and we’ll most probably see a different branding on it. With Samsung’s foldable smartphone and the S10 making their way into the markets soon, this patent will most certainly threaten the monopoly shared by Apple and Samsung in the premium smartphone space. It seems that Sony finally realized how important the smartphone market has been lately and it is better late than never.
