Sony has been working hard to raise its game in the Android smartphone market. The company has to pull out all the stops if it expects to sell 50 million smartphones next year. A big part of that strategy has revolved around offering exclusive content and big name marketing tie-ins. We’ve just had Bond using an Xperia T and now Sony is launching the Xperia Lounge which features a range of exclusive content and competitions that give you a chance to win VIP experiences.

The app is currently in beta, but it is available for any Android smartphone running 2.3 Gingerbread and above. I snagged it from Google Play for my Galaxy S3 to see what all the fuss is all about. It’s a fairly sleek and simple looking interface with three tabs along the top for View all, What’s hot and By month. Then there’s a list of events and competitions which range from the chance to win exclusive framed artwork from a Coldplay video, to tickets for a FIFA Club World Cup match in Japan, to an exclusive VIP experience in Hawaii where you’ll watch 45 surfers compete in the Billabong Pipeline.

If you’re a fan of sports, music or film then you’ll probably find something to spark your interest. Sadly a lot of the content is actually exclusive to Xperia device owners. I clicked on the first competition that caught my eye and it popped up “Sorry Xperia users only”. It would be nice if it filtered the available competitions by what you can actually enter on your device because tapping on them in turn to find out is rather tedious.

When you find a competition that you can enter without an Xperia phone you’ll find a choice of sign-ins. You can use your Xperia account, your Facebook account, or your Google account, and the app will want some basic info and your email (make sure you don’t tick the “spam me” box). The competitions generally have an easy multiple choice question to answer first. Thankfully after entering my log in for Google once the app remembered it and I could enter a bunch of other competitions with a tap.

Beyond competitions you’ll find some exclusive video content in there which was mostly a mixture of skateboarding and adverts showing off how awesome the Xperia range is.

It seems like a pretty tidy app and free competition entry is always welcome. It’s obviously best for Xperia users, but it’s worth a look for other Android users. I’m keeping my fingers crossed about those Club World Cup tickets.