I’ve never taken a selfie on a smartphone and shared it via social media, so I certainly won’t be buying the Sony Xperia C3.
But that’s not to say thousands, or even millions of teenyboppers around the world won’t be sucked in by Sony’s marketing ploy of labelling its new device as “the ultimate selfie smartphone”.
Of course, a selfie can be taken on any phone with a camera, though not all allow you to touch up your make-up or adjust your bedhead before sending your grinning mug into the twittersphere.
It’s a big selling point for those currently following the trend, which include celebrities from list A to Z.
For Sony, however, it feels like a desperate risk.
This is the company that, to me, in the 1990s was the King of Electronics. Walking into a friend’s lounge to see a Sony Bravia TV parked up in the corner would lead to a ‘whoa, you have a Sony!’.
Fast forward a couple of decades, with the competition in the smartphone market reaching boiling point, here we have Sony reaching out to the screaming masses desperate to show they were at the latest Justin Bieber concert, had been to get a fresh haircut, or simply want some attention.
To the generations preceding the selfie movement, it is a concept difficult to grasp. In the Dubai Mall last week, my wife stopped upon seeing a lady taking pictures with a selfie stick and was left befuddled as to what she was doing and why she would do it. The backdrop of an escalator can only raise so much excitement.
But we cannot escape the fact that people, including in the Dubai Mall, are taking pictures of themselves on their phones, and Sony is tapping into this.
And I cannot escape thinking that a phone associating itself with selfies will be a reason to head to the LG, Nokia or BlackBerry stand where I won’t be alone.
Afterall, Narcissus didn’t require an Xperia C3 to fall in love with his reflection.
ioxborrow@thenational.ae
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