14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has sold its notebook brand VAIO to Japan Industrial Partners and the Japanese company has, in turn, released a smartphone with the said brand.
The first ever VAIO smartphone is in fact a Panasonic Eluga U2 smartphone that's been rebranded by the Japanese company. Even though the smartphone has mid-range specs, it's been priced pretty high due to its “valuable” brand.
Now it turns out that VAIO wants to compete with Sony in the smartphone business. According to Digitimes, sources from the upstream supply chain claim Japan Industrial Partners is expected to become a strong competitor of Sony Xperia smartphones.
VAIO has partnered with Japanese carrier B-mobile to sell its smartphone in Japan. Speaking of which, the VAIO smartphone will be available for purchase for $410 outright.
We doubt that the VAIO will be able to compete with Sony's Xperia lineup of smartphones, especially due to its not so appealing pricing and very limited portfolio.
If and when more VAIO smartphones are launched in the future, then we will be able to talk about competition between Japan Industrial Partners and Sony. We'll be keeping a close eye on this one, so stay tuned for more updates on the matter.