Sony Corp. has unveiled its new Xperia Z1 smartphone, featuring an improved lens to boost camera performance.
"We will continue renovating smartphone functions," CEO Kazuo Hirai said Wednesday. Sony's chief competitors in the sector are Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.
While Sony declined to announce when it will launch the new smartphone in Japan, carriers NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. are expected to introduce it in the winter.
Sony is stressing the camera functions of its smartphones as more people use them to snap photos for social-networking sites. The announcement was made prior to a trade fair of home electronics from Friday in Berlin.
