Sony has officially begun the global rollout of the Xperia Z2 smartphone starting with Taiwan, which is one of the few countries to be included in Sony’s initial wave of launch. Other countries of Asia as well as Europe are expected to get the handset in mid-April as originally scheduled.

Sony devices are supposed to be very popular in Taiwan, which is why the Japanese manufacturer has brought its flagship handset to the region first. Knowing that Taiwan is home to HTC, the Xperia Z2 could face some competition after the 2014 HTC One is announced tomorrow.

The Xperia Z2 has been priced at NT$23,900 which is approximately $782, indicating that Sony is not going easy with the pricing. The company also launched the Xperia Z2 Tablet in Taiwan during the launch event, which is already available in some parts of the world.

It will be interesting to see if this early Taiwanese launch will have any impact on the sales of the Xperia Z2 as Sony is banking heavily on the smartphone’s success.

• SourceFocus Taiwan
• ViaPhone Arena