It’s a dog eat dog world in the smartphone industry. When the competition is stiff, it’s stiff, but when the competition fails to keep up with the fast-moving pace of smartphone technology, they’re pretty much done. Designs and platforms have come and gone, and only those strong enough to survive have been able to stick around.

Throughout these past 8 years or so, the smartphone industry has undergone a lot of changes to get to where we are today, and it’s constantly evolving with manufacturers and platforms coming in and moving out. In a recent announcement made by mobile manufacturer Sony, we may be facing another departure from our smartphone lineup within the coming years.

I don’t want to see that happen. Not with Sony.

Sony’s made some exceptional strides in their devices, especially in the Xperia Z line of smartphones. From the Z1 to the current generation, the Z3, I’ve been more than impressed with what Sony has had to offer in comparison to its direct competition. I like the design, the handle, the features, and the specs. My biggest problem with Sony’s flagship smartphones is that they’ve never been available across all major carriers in the United States, which leaves a lot of potential customers here without option. Carrier exclusives are a thing of the past at this point, so when people see that they can get the Galaxy S whatever, the HTC One, the LG G something or other, or the Moto X (enter appropriate model year here), they forget all about Sony’s flagships because they have all of these other great devices available to them right then and there.

And it’s probably not Sony’s fault, but that’s what’s killing their potential sales here. While I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes that make it so that Sony can’t get its smartphones on all carriers, I wish that somebody would figure out the problem and get it fixed. Sony has too much to offer for them to feel like they have to leave mobile.

On the other hand, Sony did mention perhaps teaming up with another company, which I think would also be acceptable if it meant being able to at least keep Sony’s hardware on board. The Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact are great phones, especially in regards to battery life in the Z3 Compact. Sony knows what is (or what should be) important to the user at the end of the day, and at the moment that’s battery life. Somehow they’ve managed to make their battery life superb compared to most other phones on the market. Not only that, but the Z3 Compact is probably the only “mini” version to exist that is actually deserving of being called a mini version of its progenitor. The specs and features on both phones are very close, and the biggest (smallest?) difference is the size.

If Sony could bring what they have to make another company better, I’m all for that. Or perhaps they could just pull a Motorola and end up being an extension to another company while keeping the Sony name.

Either way, if Sony were to duck out of the smartphone business I would consider it a tremendous loss. I think that the effort put forth into Sony’s smartphones over the past couple of years have definitely contributed to making smartphones better, with more phones pushing for element-proofing (water-proof, dust-proof, etc.), the need to close the gap between a flagship and their mini, and the pressure to make battery life that much better. I’m really hoping at this point that Sony’s able to come back from the rut that they’re in right now.