Sony has never been a huge player in the Android world, at least not to the same degree as companies like Samsung or even HTC, but in the last few years they have quickly fallen further down the ladder.

Earlier this year, Sony made it clear they would be investing less in their mobile efforts, though this hasn’t stopped them from producing two flagships, the Xperia Z3+/Z4 and now the new Xperia Z5 family. While the Sony Xperia Z5 family takes some positive steps in the right direction, offering a further slimmed down UI and even a 4K model, high pricing and poor marketing are unlikely to change anytime soon. Another potential issue? Availability.

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Sony has never had a major presence in the US, offering most of its products either through its website or a partnering retailer. Sony has also had a carrier presence, but it has generally been limited to just T-Mobile or Verizon. This summer, Sony shut off one of these channels: its retail store. This meant that Sony fans had to either go through a site like Amazon, or turn to carriers. And now they are essentially doing the same in the UK.

Effective immediately, Sony shoppers will now be reliant on carriers or Sony’s partnering retails for Sony devices in the UK. The Japanese giant’s UK website will continue to offer advice on their phones but will no longer sell them, similar to what we have seen with the US website.

Sony gets so much right with the design of their phones, but unfortunately fails at the areas that matter most to average consumers: pricing, availability, and marketing. Too bad nothing indicates that this situation will ever change, at least not under Sony’s current leadership. What do you think of Sony’s mobile products? What changes would you like to see in order to be more interested? How do you feel about their closure of the US, and now the UK, retail stores?