Sony Teases New Xperia Smartphone, Lets Fans Speed Up Announcement Date

Sony is trying a new technique to drum up excitement and hype surrounding the upcoming announcement of its next Xperia smartphone: Instead of setting a date and teasing upcoming features, Sony is putting the actual announcement date in the hands of its fans. Initially, the revelation of the new handsets was planned for June 22, but Sony is letting users "Fast Forward" the announcement using a button on the company's Facebook page.

At the time of this writing, 20,794 fans had already moved the date up by more than five days to June 14 (this Thursday). Users can click the "Fast Forward" button once per day. On the same page, fans can also enter a competition to win a new Xperia device after hitting the "Fast Forward" button. There are four locked boxes on the page, which makes us think there's potential Sony could have four announcements in store.