Do you take lots of selfies each day? Then why don’t you buy a “selfie phone”? That’s Sony’s train of thought I guess. You might recall they announced Xperia C3 also dubbed the “selfie phone”. This device was announced a month ago and it will be available for purchase in the next few days, mid-August, starting in China and Taiwan. Regarding the specs, Xperia C3 has 5.5″ 720p (1280 x 720) Triluminous display on the front along with the wide angle 5MP front-facing “selfie-cam” which can utilize a slew of software features Sony packed into the device in order to make your selfie-taking experience a breeze. The device is powered by a Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz quad-core processor while it has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage (expandable via MicroSD card up to 32GB) inside. 8MP main camera is placed on the back side of the device flanking a LED flash.
According to Focus Taiwan, Sony expects this thing to sell, to sell good. Jonathan Lin, general manager of Sony’s mobile Taiwan branch, said that Sony’s goal if for C3 to outsell similarly priced smartphones in September. They count on young women buying this phone considering they have “high interest in taking selfies”, Mr. Lin said. A smartphone that might be a direct competitor to Sony Xperia C3 in the selfie department (even though HTC didn’t advertise it as such) is HTC Desire 816, which also has a similar price to Xperia C3. Mr. Lin expects Sony’s growth in Taiwan. Sony expects to sell 43 million smartphones around the world in 2014, we’ll see how that goes.
It’s going to be interesting to see how will this phone sell. I don’t believe people are that ready to buy a smartphone just because it is marketed as a “selfie phone”, though I might be wrong. This device will surely be at least somewhat more popular with the female population. There’s still no word on when will it be coming to other markets, but it should hit Taiwan and China in the next few days starting at NT$9,900 (US$330).
