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Sony promises top-end handset to compete with GS III and iPhone, implies its existing flagship doesn't

Sony Mobile's sales chief, Dennis van Schie, has gone on the record with a pledge that just about crosses the line from marketing to manifesto. Speaking to the Financial Times Deutschland, he said Sony "will create, in the near future, a flagship model that can compete with Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S III." Such a claim doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement of the manufacturer's existing top-end offering, the fast yet flawed Xperia TL, but it does raise our hopes for CES, since FTD reports that the superphone in question will be presented in early 2013 at both the Las Vegas show and Mobile World Congress. On a related note, van Schie also promised that Sony's chaotic array of online storefronts would become better integrated by the end of 2013, with every user being able to use a single ID across all their devices to access content -- something that sounds simple, but evidently isn't.