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Sony, which was dislodged by Samsung Electronics of Korea as the world’s top electronics maker, is trying its luck in the Indian market again with a litany of new smartphones (Xperia series) and Sony’s moderate pricing could prompt buyers to opt for these extremely smart-looking  handsets.

Priced between Rs 17,399 and Rs 25,449, the three smart devices - Xperia U, Xperia P and Xperia Sola - have been designed for the youths and executives on the move for a litany of services and applications through the internet and television channels.

Sony Xperia U comes with a 3.5 inch scratch-resistant TFT touchscreen that has a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels and is propelled by a 1 GHz STE U8500 dual-core processor.

The smartphone runs on Google Android 2.3 operating system. There’s a 5 megapixel camera along with auto focus, 16x digital zoom as well as LED flash. The phone offers 8 GB internal memory and 512 MB RAM. It is priced at Rs 17,400.

Sony Xperia Sola comes with a 1 GHz dual-core processor. The smartphone has a 3.7 inch scratch-resistant TFT touchscreen and 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash.

The 8 GB internal storage with microSD memory card slot can be expanded up to 32 GB. It carries a price tag of Rs 20,449.

Sony Xperia P has a 1 GHz U8500 dual-core processor and a 4-inch scratch-resistant TFT touchscreen with a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. It runs on Google Android 2.3 OS. The Xperia P has 8 megapixel camera and auto focus, 8x digital zoom and LED flash. The phone has internal storage of 16 GB, and 1 GB RAM. It is priced at Rs 26,799.

India’s market is witnessing a change, and even though customers flock for cheap products, they are slowly getting status conscious also. This price range of about Rs 20,000 could be ideal not only for the “brand conscious” but also the burgeoning middle class people who could lap up these products quite easily.

However, competition in the Rs 20,000 smartphone category is intense with Samsung and Nokia being the top two players. There are also home-grown companies like Micromax, which is present in the ultra-low category segment (That is, phones which are priced below Rs 5,000).

So, there are enough players who could dampen Sony’s India strategy on smartphones if the Japanese major does not turn aggressive.

“Our new devices are an indication of the brand’s commitment to Indian users, especially the youth, young professionals and upward-mobile persons who would like to stay connected always and access a gamut of services such as voice, data and digital forms,” Sony Mobile marketing head Prasun Kumar said.

To promote the handsets, the Indian arm of Sony has tied up with Tata Teleservices to provide free data services up to 3 GB on Tata Docomo as well as around 30 games.

Sony is a well known brand and a little marketing push could do the trick. Even the pricing is okay, and with a brand promotion, Sony could ramp up sales as well as presence in the Indian market substantially.

Sony has also forayed into the tablets market with devices, christened the S1 and S2, that are WiFi, 3G as well as 4G compatible, sparking fears that the move could see Apple iPad’s share in the tablet market, which is currently at over 80 per cent, dwindle sharply in the next few years.

The S1 and S2 (which are just codenames) are slated for launch in the next three to four months. The real names will be revealed just ahead of launch.

And both the S1 and S2 tablets will also come with infrared lamps to control Sony Bravia devices.

They’ll also belt out music and video to compatible devices through the DLNA wireless protocol. This is similar in concept to Apple’s AirPlay.

The S1 has a 9.4-inch display while the S2 comes with two 5.5-inch displays that can be folded. The tablets will be compatible with PlayStation games.

But the design of the S1 and S2 are completely different from the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Apple’s iPad and Sony’s gadgets do seem to have a slender look.

Sony’s tablets will use an operating system based on Google’s Android 3.0. Sony has not yet revealed the price of the S1 and S2.

Tablet PC sales are set to peak to almost $50 billion in four years as people across the globe make a beeline to lap up the devices that can correctly be placed between laptops and smartphones.

Apple’s iPad2 was rolled out in the US a month ago and comes equipped with cameras and a powerful processor. Prices begin from $499.

The iPad has set cash registers ringing for Apple, with sales touching almost the $10 billion-mark since its launch last year. Tablet sales touched more than 10 million units last year from a low of 90,000 in 2009.

In a bid to tap the swirling demand, companies like Samsung, whose Galaxy Tab is Apple’s strongest contender in the tablets segment, along with Motorola, LG and HTC are flooding the market with tablets that run on the Android OS.

Even though a late mover in the tablets market, Sony’s reputation as one of the world’s top electronics brands could help pare Apple’s share substantially with fears that Sony could become number two in the market in a couple of years, dislodging Samsung.

To get a grip of the market and see to it that its second position stays, Samsung will have to not only innovate but also whittle down prices of its tablets and enrich them with features while Apple will have to go on an upgrade mode aggressively to make its iPad different from the rest.

A price cut by the South Korean firm could see it go a long way in the tablets market and constant innovation will help Apple to remain on top, even in the medium term, giving Sony’s S1 and S2 a run for their money.

Sony had been left behind by miles in the smartphone race with Nokia rolling out the Lumia 920, Samsung the Galaxy S III, the Grand along with the Note II, BlackBerry the 10 series phones and Apple the iPhone 5 hence Sony hopes to do some catching up with its new Xperia Z but will this handset be enough to make Sony rake in in a big way and dent the share of the market leaders (Apple and Samsung)?

The Sony Xperia Z comes with a litany of hi-tech features like a 5-inch full HD display, is water and dust resistant (probably one of the first in the world of mobile phones) and sports a scratch-resistant glass body.

The device comes for Rs 38,990 in the country and would vie with a slew of handsets like HTC Butterfly, Nokia Lumia 920, BlackBerry Z10, Galaxy series handsets and LG Optimus G Pro.

The all-new Xperia Z offers a TFT display which supports 1920x1080p resolution and has a stunning 441ppi pixel density.

The Sony smartphone operates on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS and is likely to be upgraded to Android 4.2 soon, according to the company.

Sony has implanted the quad-core 1.5 GHz Krait processor and 2 GB RAM in this high-end device. For memory, the handset comes with 16 GB storage along with 32 GB microSD card support.

Connectivity options available in the phone are 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and microUSB 2.0.

Sony Xperia Z has a unique Battery Stamina Mode, which helps spur the standby time by four times by automatically shutting down battery-draining apps when the screen is off. It starts them again once the screen comes back to the ON mode.

Sony also rolled out the Xperia ZL, another Android 4.1 smartphone, with almost the same hardware configuration.

However, the only difference is that the ZL model is thicker and heavier than the Xperia Z and is not water or dust resistant. It is also a tad cheaper at Rs 36,990.

Sony also unveiled its Xperia Tablet Z, a water-and dust-resistant tablet, which runs on the Android 4.1. This device will hit the country in about a couple of months.

Sony’s launching spree of the Xperia Z, the ZL and the Tab Z is an indication that the once leading Japanese electronics major desperately wants to get its top slot back after companies like Apple (with iPads, iPhones and iPods) and Samsung (with its handsets, TVs and other gizmos) literally wiped out the Japanese giant’s presence in less than a decade.

It is to be seen whether Sony can bounce back with these handsets, which have numerous unique features, or whether there is a need to roll out more such handsets to get back the favour of gizmo freaks who had abandoned products of the company, which once ruled the electronics market worldwide.