A sign of things to come for sure, T-Mobile has unexpectedly stopped selling the Sony Xperia Z3. Just a little over 6 months into October 2014, we saw T-Mobile begin carrying the flagship smartphone from Sony alongside Verizon. During that time, Sony has claimed that T-Mobile has been a good partnership for them though we’ve had no real sales to go by. The only sales numbers we’ve had have been general ones for the entire mobile division of Sony which have been poor to say the least.

In early March, T-Mobile announced support for Android 5.0 Lollipop on the Xperia Z1s and Xperia Z3. Now, less than a month later and T-Mobile no longer carries any Sony devices. Is this a sign of good things with the Xperia Z4 in the near future, or a sign of bad things for Sony Mobile?

Discussion after the jump.

One argument that can be made is that, with the Sony Xperia Z4 on the horizon, T-Mobile is preparing their stores and inventory for the new device and the optimist inside of me wants to go with that story. Unfortunately, that story doesn’t have a lot going for it. Sony has generally had an abysmal time launching their devices in a timely matter in the United States. Instead, we tend to trail off on an average of 6 months if not more when it comes to mobile product launches which could mean that, even if the Z4 was announced tomorrow, (which it won’t be, since most info points to its debut in a month or two), we wouldn’t be getting it until fall.

Even if we tap into that optimist that resides in me and say that the Xperia Z4 will enjoy a worldwide launch, it still goes against the business norm. Again, assuming that the Z4 will arrive on June 1st in the US (and that’s a big assumption), that means that T-Mobile will simply miss two months of potential sales. Apple, which has a fairly predictable time schedule for phones with considerable hype which means most know months in advance that new devices are coming don’t see their phone sales disappear as they approach new models.

For Sony, who has little of that going for them, it’s safe to say that as long as the consumer at T-Mobile is delighted by the Z3, they’ll likely purchase it, seeing as, unless they’re a hardcore techie and reading sites such as this, they’ll likely never hear any news about the Z4. Beyond that, even when new models launch, carriers tend to offer its predecessor at reduced prices. This gives carriers flexibility in the models they offer while also helping clear inventory.

In short, its unprecedented for a carrier to pull a device, simply because a new model is coming, seeing how they can continue to sell that device well beyond the arrival of its replacement. Though I have no numbers to go by and Sony/T-Mobile have never revealed any sales figures, I’d wager that the real reason T-Mobile has stopped carrying the Xperia Z3 isn’t because it’s not delighting customers, but that customers simply aren’t buying it.

Unfortunately, this  likely has little to do with the actual quality and capabilities of the Z3 and more to do with Sony. Until Sony wakes up to the fact that their brand carries little to no loyalty outside of PlayStation, they won’t realize that, even if they were on all four major carriers in the US, people aren’t simply considering their products.

Even worse, it’s not that they somehow have a distaste for Sony products or feel that they’re not adequate; it’s that they simply don’t know they exist. For a company like T-Mobile, it’s not that somehow these units are a burden to them, but simply why bother selling something that isn’t moving? The arrival of the Xperia Z4 won’t change any of that. Until Sony wakes up to this simple truth, which is plaguing them across their entire electronics division, they’ll continue to lose marketshare to rivals.

@Serotheo The Z3 is no longer available. Here are our current Sony devices: http://t.co/ijK7q3PuYq *JB

— T-Mobile (@TMobile) April 5, 2015 

So as it stands, you can count T-Mobile out of being a carrier for Sony Mobile unless you fancy yourself a certified pre-owned Xperia Z1s or Xperia Z.

Discuss:

Why do you think T-Mobile no longer carries the Sony Xperia Z3?