It is never a good sign when a device is pulled out of the shelves; and when you are talking about a device that was given a multi-million pound advertising campaign (to quote the source), that is just asking for heads to roll.
The big fuss this week over the Sony Ericsson Satio comes from the fact that retail version of the device have been suffering from major problems when it comes to the firmware and power management. People are complaining of lost ringtones, crashes, battery problems and consistent slowdowns that have been plaguing the stylishly cute phone.
Sony Ericsson is confident they can fix the issue, or so their Senior Marketing Manager, Richard Dorman says. Still, unless they promise a firmware update or hotfix, this could spell doom for the Satio this coming Christmas season.
What is interesting is that despite being pulled out of Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U, carriers such as Vodafone and T-Mobile still offer the device to their clients. Reportedly, the problem may have something to do with the ‘skin’ on the device interface. The custom skins used by the carriers seem to prevent the problem while devices that use Sony Ericsson’s proprietary skin are having the problems.
The Satio, problems aside, is actually a pretty impressive mobile phone. This Symbian S60 is packed with a touch screen interface that has been skinned with a more stylish look. It also boasts an impressive 12 mega pixel camera that promises very high quality images and excellent media playback capabilities. All in all, the phone would have helped Sony Ericsson’s weak sales –if not for this current predicament.
Sony has advised consumers to keep an eye on the official website for a release of a fix on the issue. For now, the two major retailers will be hold back sales of the device unless SE delivers a solid solution.
Tags: sony-ericsson-satio