Sony stops selling the Xperia Z3 Compact in the US

Sony is doing it again, leaving fans and industry observers scratching their heads in bewilderment. Although T-Mobile's removal of the Xperia Z3 last April turn to out to be a false alarm, the unlocked Xperia Z3 Compact might not be so lucky. Sony has just put its last mini flagship under the discontinued section of its online store with nary an explanation nor a clue. Normally, discontinuing products heralds the arrival of a successor. But the way Sony has been acting these days, it's getting hard to tell what the Japanese OEM is really up to.

The "Compact" series of smartphones isn't exactly the most consistent one, truth be told. So far there have only really been two of them, the Xperia Z1 Compact and Xperia Z3 Compact. Sony skipped a generation for one reason or another. But we're not really complaining, because the Xperia Z3 Compact was quite worth the wait. In fact, jumping from Z1 to Z3 actually made it even sweeter.

Those mini flagships weren't bad either. They were quite close to the main flagship line themselves but offered slightly lower specs, a more handy size, and more affordable price tag. The Xperia Z3 Compact itself, while not exactly making headlines, is presumed to have done quite well in the market. So why cut it out and why now?

It's hard to divine Sony's strategy these days, which seems to be "throw everything at the wall to see which sticks" kind of thing that is more often Samsung's gameplay. The handling of the Xperia Z4 vs Xperia Z3+ situation adds to the confusion, and probably some hurt feelings among Sony's remaining believers. Sony might be on the verge of writing it's own self-fulfilling prophecy of how its mobile business is not doing so well.

We could almost give Sony the benefit of the doubt that here, except for the fact that the even older Xperia Z1 Compact still remains listed as available. Perhaps Sony just ran out of stocks, though it should probably wouldn't be listed under the "Discontinued" group then. We'll just have to wait and see if Sony does have something planned or if it's just starting to lose it.

VIA: Xperia Blog