Sony have been losing money from their mobile division which has shocked some into knee jerking their opinions on why this has been the case. Now you have to remember these opinions have been written by many American blogs and websites that think Sony have not been selling outside their own back yard but let me explain why they are wrong.
Firstly putting aside the lower spec handsets which Sony haven't been doing too well at - even though many of those handsets have been on a 12 month cycle, rather than the top liner 6 month, Sony have been doing well, now 6 months cycles in small increments means the development cost is actually quite low and means the reason to the consumer to upgrade between cycles is low too, which is fine by me because changing handsets every 6 months is both expensive and pointless.I had the original Z and while it was a good first effort by Sony the battery sucked as did the screen - the Z1 released 6 months later was actually a huge improvement, so I upgraded (yes I have pissed on my point here but stay with me) had Sony waited a full year before updating the Z they would have fallen behind the curve and been playing catch up. So the Z1 was purchased (or given to me by Sony) the leap from the Z1 to Z2 huge - the battery life was improved a little and the screen was good - camera was the same and the bezels shrunk slightly but the package was excellent.
If I had not had the Z1 then the Z2 is a superb purchase and guess what - it still is and is now priced really well if you cant afford the Z3. Now there is a Z3 in the offering both in the US and Europe a full year after the Z1 - is this a good upgrade - and here is the point. Since most flagships have an upgrade cycle of a year, with Sony you actually can stay on odd number or even number upgrades which do have a tangible benefit of upgrading from a consumer perspective. To Sony and most, this makes good consumer sense and business sense.
One of the only hurdles is peoples perception of not having the latest handset just 6 months after release of the last, but people need to get over that (and themselves) as Sony has shown the reasons to upgrade every 6 months is small, apart from selfless egos that need to willy wave in the pub.From Sony's point of view they get to release at least once a year without any competition doing the same, which outside of the US where Sony have been marketing and doing well at. The Z3 marks the return of Sony to multiple networks inside the US and hopefully a return to form with a solid handset to market. Especially the Z3 Compact which stands toe to toe with the iPhone and kills it in many areas.
Sony has been doing great with updates to its handsets in Europe which I hope will not be held back by GSM networks in the US either.