Hi,
This is a complaint but before I go any further I must acknowledge that I realise I am flogging a dead horse and that this will indeed fall on death ears. This is a long critical post and I accept that others have opinions too and it just isn't fair that not everybody agrees with them.
This weekend I failed to become a Sony customer. Having read reviews and searched for the issues which have users posting to messaging boards like this one to complain, I settled on the Xperia Tablet Z as the choice of device to meet my needs.
So to briefly outline my decision making process, just to show it isn't so different from anyone else's. I imagine one or two of these priorities might swap position depending when you write the list but overall this is what I'd go for.
Priority 1 - Price
Priority 2 - Battery
Priority 3 - Display & CPU + RAM
Priority 4 - Wi-fi + 4G
Priority 5 - Internal Storage
Priority 6 - Expansion and connectivity
Priority 7 - Appearance
Priority 8 - Accessories i.e. keyboard
So as one might expect first I'll review the price. The Xperia Tablet is targeting IPad price points at Internal Storage and 4G connectivity. At first glance this perhaps isn't so bad but I'll return to this point later.
Battery - Display - CPU - RAM etc... are all with the range of similar products from competitors.
Wifi + 4G this is a available and very necessary, something else to which I'll return.
Internal Storage! Who in their mind these days buys a product with only 16GB? As a minimum I've only considered 32GB for the last eight years!
Now this rather neatly brings us to expansion and connectivity because I'm thinking now of the Micro SD card slot a salve to all your file storage problems... not really. USB is standard now and that's a good thing but what about USB 3?
By this point if you're buying a product for personal reasons which will form a small part of your sentimental collection then appearance matters and Xperia Z looks good with its low profile bevel.
Everyone wants a case and a sizable hardware keyboard does wonders! No hardware keyboards to be found in the Sony store but there are aftermarket options available.
How were my priorities not met? First and foremost the range, 16GB & 32GB but no 4G connectivity on the 32GB model. So here's where someone might answer but you can buy a 64GB mirco SD card for in the order of £50. A Micro SD card slot is not a means to augment the specification of an inferior product, there are three specific reasons for this;
- Buying the 16GB + 4G Xperia Tablet plus the Micro SD expansion brings the total price to £550
- Even with the Micro SD card installed you don't have the same uniform file system access which you get with one large drive.
- As a removable storage media it is most useful for transferring those big data blobs from one device to another i.e. a photo album or collection of home movies etc.
The product range of 16GB and 32GB not acceptable simply as the Market Leader has a much larger range to offer and priced competitively. You remember how I said I'd return to pricing? Well here it is. Price! These devices are targeting the same price points as the Market Leader in a market where the Market Leader has a hugely strong brand image. Personally, I'd be willing to pay like for like prices where I a product which I perceive as being a superior product but not like for like with a product which I can find any way to be comparatively critical of it compared to its rival. Most consumers aren't even that generous.
One issue here is that the performance characteristics of a 16GB (plus 4G) device vs a 128GB (plus 4G) device are going to be negligible the issue will be price. (by the way at the time of writing for the average consumer a Kingston 32GB emmc module sells for just under £50 and that's pretty much retail. The prices fall per bit as the capacities increase but 32Gb was the biggest I could find.) This is where the Market Leader's brand can demand the premium and if you don't like it then get out of the market! Business isn't about what you like or how you like to see yourself, business is about your customers and if your competitor can offer a higher spec product and sell it then so can you.
Who said 'Cloud' come on put your hand up! I am neither a leaf on the wind nor is my data a drop in the marketing stratosphere. To quote the Psion philosophy, this is where my data lives. The cloud has its purpose, sharing and backup and synchronisation. But in the real world on the go, my data is here, I work with what I have in front of me. Thin clients are another buzz phrase that pops up now and again and in concert with a strongly connected world and the cloud will work well but we don't live in that world.
All of this proceeds issue like the Market Leader being about to update their product range, taking Sony's already out of spec range even further from the desirable market segment and not counting the old fashioned OS. Four new modern operating systems are coming to market this year. While I wouldn't suggest for a moment that the Xperia Z running Android is a bad thing but a similar product with a modern OS with an actual acceptable spec and perhaps a new killer feature...
You know, on Sony's European Graduate Recruitment Program the promotes the message about imaginative innovative thinking - not falling in step with the crowd. With this product range Sony certainly aren't in step with crowd, Sony is behind and loosing ground! So to Sony I say this, listen to your own recruitment message and innovate. Of cause, like everyone else, I have my ideas about what Sony could do better but then I seriously doubt that Sony are interested in my views.
In short the failings here are: In the case of the Xperia Tablet Z, it fails on range and price. In the case of Sony, fail on a lack of innovation.
sincerely very opinionated!
