Along with the picture above, Sony Xperia posted a rather cryptic message on Twitter. They simply wrote, “Tomorrow, we’re celebrating a new beauty! Don’t miss it. 12.01.16 – 02:00CET. #Xperia ” Could it be the “rose gold” Xperia Z5 making its mass market debut? Perhaps a new Z5 variant, such as the rumored Xperia Z5 Ultra from back in September, or the mid-range Xperia C6? The picture gives a very vague clue at best. Could it be Valentine’s Day-related? Birthday-related? A phone running Android 1.5 Cupcake unironically in 2016? The last one may be dubious at best, but one thing is for sure. This move by Sony had one purpose and one purpose only; to get the rumor and hype mills moving. According to the comments on the Twitter post, speculating everything from a wide U.S. release of the Xperia Z5 to Android 6.0 Marshmallow for the Xperia Z3+, they’ve done a good job of doing just that.
The possibilities for this “new beauty” are nigh-endless. Even the announcement of the Xperia Z6, which would likely create legions of jilted Xperia Z5 and Z5 Premium owners, doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch, with how vague the hint was. Somewhere in a dark corner of the internet, of course, there may be somebody wringing their hands and looking over their bank accounts to earmark funds for the Xperia Play 2. Speculation can tend to run rampant, especially with the number of rumors and leaks that have been surrounding Sony and their Xperia branding lately.
Whatever this “new beauty” may be, it’s clearly going to be something big. Although this may be a small PR move, especially only a day in advance, Sony’s 1.6 million followers on Twitter alone are sure to spread the hype as Sony likely intended. Stunts like this are nothing new in the wireless industry, of course, but the sheer amount of speculation that’s acutally somewhat plausible makes this PR stunt just a bit more special than a run-of-the-mill pre-announcement. More than likely, when the time rolls around for Sony to unveil this surprise, current Sony owners, fans and the tech industry at large will be watching with bated breath.