One of the more bizarre things out of Sony’s mobile ambitions has been the lack of fingerprint sensor on their phones in the US. Despite the technology being available worldwide since the introduction of the Xperia Z5, US models haven’t been able to utilize the feature, despite sharing the same hardware as their global counterparts. That’s because Sony has specifically disabled the feature via firmware, something that can be reverted if you’re brave enough to flash your device with software from another country.

Till now, much of the speculation has been about a potential patent dispute between Sony and an unknown party. If true, it meant that Sony was unwilling to pay the licensing fees involved to the patent holder. But as you’ll learn soon, perhaps it’s not a patent dispute at all. Here is Don Mesa, Head of Marketing, North America for Sony Mobile US talking with Android Central:

 There are a lot of external and internal factors that contribute to us making a conscious decision not to include [fingerprint]. 

Unsurprisingly, Don is vague here in his wording and as Andrew Martonik notes:

 This external factor, it seems, is something to do with deals it has made (or terminated) in the US specifically. 

Don (pictured left) went on to say that it was

 very much about us consciously deciding that we want to continue our business here [in the US], and [that’s] one of the conditions for us to be able to do business. 

In short, the whole drama around the lack of fingerprint sensors on US Xperia models could have little to do with a patent dispute and more to do with poorly-constructed business contracts.

 So here’s the meat of the issue: based on some deal previously made relating specifically to the U.S., in order for Sony to sell phones in the country it cannot ship them with functioning fingerprint sensors. Taking the lesser of two evils, Sony chose to continue to sell phones with the fingerprint sensor disabled instead of give up on the US entirely — and this seems to be the case still, as Sony has continued to sell a wide range of unlocked phones here. So despite this bizarre limitation against using fingerprint sensors, Sony still sees the US as an important market and wants to keep selling its top-end devices here.

When pressed for specifics, Mesa acknowledged the rub with US carriers in Sony’s transition from selling carrier-backed phones to going entirely unlocked, eventually leading to this fingerprint situation in some way. Events like the launched-then-canceled Xperia Z4V and various one-off carrier devices that never sold well seem to point to Sony having troubles dealing with the US operators. It wouldn’t be surprising if a deal (or deals) gone bad led to some fingerprint exclusivity problems as a penalty of such a fallout. Of course the real rub here is the specifics of such deals are not — and may never be — disclosed. 

I’m not sure who is doing business on behalf of Sony Mobile in the US but I think Kaz Hirai needs to reevaluate his lieutenants if these are the deals they’ve struck, seeing how they’re the only phone manufacturer I’m aware of that isn’t allowed to sell their phones with fingerprint sensor in the US due to some previously struck deal. That alone should shed some light on why Sony’s struggled so much in the US and globally.

I also find it interesting to note that Sony continues to want to stay in the US. Last I’d heard, the sales numbers in the US were beyond terrible and well below 1 million for the previous quarter, making it a hard case for most manufacturers to want to continue to commit time and resources. Then again, it’s likely that costs for Sony Mobile’s US operations are extremely minor, seeing how Sony does next to nothing to promote them.

Also, Sony Mobile US has a head of marketing? I feel like that’s newsworthy on its own. Who knew?