Sony Xperia Z: A new challenger appears!

Unveiled at this year's CES Sony's newest entrant in the smartphone wars won plaudits for its looks and spec, putting it firmly in the same league as Apple's Iphone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S3. And a welcome sign that the electronics giant is finally back on track after several bad years.
In terms of raw processing speed, screen size, camera and video capabilities the Xperia Z comfortably out-performs the competition. And the blending of the technologies in the Z echo Sony's tablet strapline from last year; All our innovations folded into one. In the Xperia Z Sony's engineering know-how leverages Bravia TV, Walkman audio and VAIO mobile computing expertise to deliver a hardy, high-performance smartphone.

But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Z's proposition is what Sony's done differently from the competition. Smartphones are all about everyday use so having a device that's water and scratch resistant makes perfect sense (and like all the best ideas makes me wonder why more manufacturers haven't done it before). And there's a fantastic battery-saving standby function which should put an end to having to carry a cable around to charge a phone at work before an evening out. These aren't necessarily technologically ground-breaking innovations. Rather they respect the day-to-day experience of users and hint at a design sensibility that goes beyond simply trying to make a bigger, faster, better-looking phone. After all, smartphones aren't just glossily packaged PDAs, they're workhorses that we use all day, every day at work, at play and in the home.

Increasingly smartphones are becoming the communications and control hub for our day-to-day computing activities. There are plugins and apps that can turn your smartphone into everything from a remote control to a body monitoring device or augmented reality reader. Sony's nod to this development are the Xperia SmartTags, launched in 2012.

One touch connectivity
A key component of the Sony offering is the connected nature of devices within the Sony eco-system which allows users to engage different devices simply by swiping. Xperia SmartTags give users the option to set their phones up in specific ways depending on location. So a different phone setup or profile can be used in the car, at work and in the home. The standards for the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology behind one touch were developed in 2004 by several mobile phone manufacturers, including Sony, and has seen the smartphone adapted as a payment device.

SmartTags are a nice concept but run the risk of redundancy, a needless extra from a company that prides itself on providing a perfect form-function balance for the user. Whilst capable of sophisticated interactions and automation at a basic level all SmartTags do is provide a convenient way of launching an enhanced profile on a smartphone, similar to activating a "quiet" profile activating a preset volume. Profiles have existed for decades on both smart and feature phones so Xperia's SmartTags aren't exactly revolutionary. But SmartTags and NFC functionality itself offer a glimpse of a possible future for how mobile devices will adapt to location and interact with other systems and devices beyond the desktop. All of which bring us a step closer to the world of ubiquitous computing.

The ubiquitous computing concept has been around since the 80s and is still a niche space. First coined by Mark Weiser of Xerox's Parc labs the concept is as much a design philosophy as a model for user experience and has informed innovations like wearable computers and smart houses. Ubiquitous computing also holds the promise of Web 3.0; everyday life supported and enabled by an infrastructure of connected, smart devices and systems in the home, office and wider environment. If, or more likely when, NFC-type tags are embedded into control interfaces for cars, homes and work spaces, smartphones will be the key control device for engaging the new go-anywhere, do-anything web. So whilst SmartTags aren't entirely ground-breaking they do a great job of offering a tantalising glimpse of what the future might hold and bring ubiquitous computing a little closer to mainstream adoption.