According to the popular evleaks group, Sony is looking to bring their flagship Android tablet to Verizon. As you may recall, Sony last month accidentally published a photo of the Xperia Z2, the company’s newest Android smartphone, sporting a Verizon logo. While the mega cellphone carrier had no comments on the matter, Sony was quick to point out that the photo was purely for internal marketing purposes and was not indicative of a deal between the two companies. With that as a backdrop, is news about the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet running on Verizon a coincidence?

Let’s talk after the jump.

Sony XPERIA Z2 Tablet coming to Verizon.

— @evleaks (@evleaks) May 24, 2014 

It should come as no surprise that Sony wants to grow sales of its mobile line. This is especially true in the US where Sony has virtually no presence. This is mostly due to the fact that for the most part, the company has had no carrier partners, resulting in their phones being offered through Sony retail stores (which there are only a few of, even prior to Sony closing most of them), or Sony’s online portal. With no carrier support, this also means that all of Sony’s smartphones carry a full MSRP, aka $700+ for each handset. In the US where consumers are used to two year contracts and a $199 price tag, you can see why the company has had little traction.

Sony’s fortunes changed a bit when the company announced a partnership with T-Mobilee nearly a year ago. While a move in the right direction, T-Mobile is the 4th largest carrier in the US out of four major carriers who no longer offers devices at subsidized price in exchange for no contracts.  Cue up rumors of Sony wanting to release their phones on Verizon, the nation’s largest carrier and you can begin to see the validity of them. In fact, it’s quite likely that Sony has prototypes of the Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z2 Tablet running on Verizon but whether the two companies can strike a deal is a different story.

So is the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet coming to Verizon? For Sony’s sake, I hope so, but then again, in the US consumers have shied away from tablets running on carrier networks, instead opting for Wi-Fi only models. So then again, maybe the Xperia Z2 Tablet coming to Verizon won’t be that big of a deal after all.

For those playing at home, the last time Sony partnered with Verizon was in 2011 when then Sony Ericsson released Xperia PLAY with lack luster results.

Discuss:

Do you think it matters if Sony is able to offer the Xperia Z2 Tablet on Verizon or not?