Sony Xperia Z4 Release Date, Specs & Price: Sony to Return to Yearly Product Cycle After Z4?

Word has it that Sony is now confident that it has already caught up with competition in the global smartphone market that the Japanese tech company will be slowing down on its bi-annual cycle of releasing new handsets.

Just this year, Sony has announced the Xperia Z2 in February and released it in May, and subsequently launched and released Xperia Z3 in September, details the PC Advisor.

As if two were not enough, Sony then released Xperia Z3's big brother, the Xperia Z3 Compact in October, chronicled Slash Gear.

Due to the short product cycle in between, the Xperia Z3 showed only slight improvements from the Xperia Z2 that was somehow a disappointment to many loyal Sony smartphone users. Except for its bigger size, Xperia Z3 Compact was no different, in terms of improvements over the Xperia Z2.

The Christian Post reports that Sony will be going back to its yearly product cycle after its planned release of the Xperia Z4 early next year.

Rumors have it that Sony's next flagship smartphone model will make its debut at MWC 2015 to be held in the first week of March at Barcelona, Spain, added the report.

But it looks like the Japanese company cannot get a hold of itself in holding on to its newest flagship smartphone as latest speculations now indicate that Xperia Z4 will be launched at the CES 2015 event to be held in January 6 - 9, 2015 at Las Vegas, Nevada, according to a Tech Radar report.

Sony is planning a press conference on January 5 at the CES 2015, and it is likely that the company will make its hardware announcements at this occasion, believes Digital Trends.

Following recent leaks on its smartphone's specifications and features, Sony is now expected to launch not only the Xperia Z4 but its big brother Xperia Z4 Ultra in January 2015, with a likely release in March 2015, notes Tech Radar.

Again, because of the very short product cycle between the releases of Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact and the Xperia Z4 and Xperia Z4 Ultra, there is hardly any 'world-changing innovations' in Sony's new flagship smartphone, cites the report.

Xperia Z4 will come with a 5.5-inch display, a QHD screen resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset and a 21-megapixel camera, notes the Christian Post.

The Xperia Z4 Ultra on the other hand shall have a 5.9-inch display, a Snapdragon 805 CPU, and a 16-megapixel camera, details Tech Radar.

There is no detail yet as far as the prices of Sony's upcoming smartphones are concerned.

But whether Sony will stick to its word of going back to its yearly cycle of producing and releasing just one flagship smartphone remains to be seen. After all, 2015 is a long ways to go.