[Xperia Z General] hydenobuyuki:
I have never seen this swirly logo in Japan. We do have the Sony FeliCa (NFC) logo on devices here so you know what part of the phone to touch to the ubiquitous NFC sensors (for vending machine, train, & store payments, coupons for places like McDonalds, etc...) But, I've never seen the swirly logo on any device here. Do you know what it is for? I'd be interested to learn more.

Absolutely agreed. Perhaps the flagship thinking needs to be rethought.

People (in Japan) gave Apple a lot of flak for being completely no adaptive to the local market with their iPhone.

Everyone knew their marketing machine would still ensure a lot of sales, but at the same time people were not happy because the things they came to expect from a "phone" were not included in the iPhone. Even today, a lot of people with the iPhone have a second phone because they can't do everything they want to do but the iPhone gave them fashionable trendy access to a universe of apps (that and the iPhone being on the worst network at the time). Perhaps the concept of a single flagship for the entire world while ignoring the local market realities and demands is not necessarily the only way to go.

I think the GX and TX are identical hardware-wise except for LTE and possibly the NFC.

(Software on the other hand is different but that's pretty moot)

I think you are correct. The design of the GX/TX vs. the T are completely different.

GX/TX is like the Arc and the Ion has a child while the T is different (more along the lines of the Sola)

I think we've seen some design concepts from Sony but I think different internal teams contribute different design directions.

I would think that the GX/TX design team and the T design team are different.

I don't think people really care about 0.6mm when they hold it. That "silver inlay" is really not noticeable. It largely just looks like a shiny line separating the matte rubbery material from the back with the shiny material from the front. It's not pretending to be anything. If you don't like painted plastic, that's totally fine but your battery point is much bigger. I can get through the whole day fine on its battery but if I'm watching a movie or using navigation, then the battery definitely won't last me the day.

Some people want the T and some people want the TX/GX (and a lot of people want the V).

Seems like it's a positive thing to have these 3 phones in the high-end line-up to satisfy different needs.

Domestically with feature phones, Sony and most other makers used to have 3 to 8 phones per carrier with 3 major carriers plus they had to to launch new devices every 3 months! (with a rigorous 6 month "version-up" development lifecycle)

Everyone laments that they make too many phones but really they make a lot less phones now here than they did 5 years ago.

But, the strategy was to have different devices to cater to different market segments. Not high-end vs. mid-range vs. cheap but different target markets. It was a strategy that worked for quite a while until smartphones became dominant (and the post-"lehman shock" downturn of Japan's domestic economy).

I'm not saying that they need to have 20 different devices still, but having 2 or 3 flagship quality devices to serve different market needs is not something to outright dismiss because of the Manufacturers-have-too-many-devices-and-need-to-focus bandwagon but something that I expect these companies to serious consider in their product strategy.

The glowing logo is a nice gimmick. I don't mind having it in general and it looks nice but it can be a little annoying when you're watching a movie in the dark and that logo's glow is hindering your eyes from properly adjusting completely to the dark.