The Swedish-Japanese joint venture we have all come to know and love as Sony Ericsson has just survived another difficult year, but at this rate, many are wondering how Sony will manage to make it to the next year.
As of the last quarter of 2009, Sony Ericsson had a loss of 167 million Euros. During the holiday season, about 14.6 million SE devices were sold. But these numbers would have been much higher had Sony’s other devices performed according to plans.
The first snag of Q4 2009 came when the SE Satio got pulled out of the shelves from both Carphone Warehouse and from Phones4U. This was dues to several problems in the device’s firmware that caused battery drains, power downs, freezing and other problems. While the problem itself was eventually fixed by Sony by the first week of December, the news about the pullout had certainly affected sales of the device.
Another major blow to the company was the delay of the XPERIA X2 from December to January. While the launch delay was for a good reason (fixing some of the phone issues), the lack of foresight on Sony’s part resulted in the continued lack of interest in the device by the public.
As a whole, Sony Ericsson has lost a total of 836 million Euros last year. The company also reported that it had closed many offices across the United States (with many branches being folded into the remaining ones) and also closed some facilities across the world. An estimated 2000 workers were let go in the process.
2010 is looking a little brighter for Sony Ericsson, at the very least, Greenpeace gave the company high marks for their eco-friendly policies. Their current lineup is also pretty impressive with the Android Snapdragon XPERIA X10 and HD Symbian Vivaz heading out this coming March.
Crunch the hard numbers straight from the source.
Archive for January, 2010
Sony Ericsson’s 2009 End Report
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010HTC HD2 to get Better Battery
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
The HTC HD2 is popping up again in everyone’s radars as the much beloved WinMo phone gets a nifty little hardware update. HTC will be releasing a brand new extended battery for the device for those heavy users who are actually able to drain the juice out of the standard 1230 mAh battery that already comes with the device.
Another nifty feature in the extended battery is that it also has a flip open stand for the device –allowing your HD2 to stand on its own. This turns your mobile phone into an instant viewing screen for your office desk.
The extended battery is now available for preorder through fClove UK for a price of 60 Euro and it is expected to arrive sometime this February.
The HTC HD2 made its name for being one of the most powerful Windows Mobile phones available in the market right now. WinMo 6.5’s user interface is considered to be a little too old and unreliable due to the fact that it is reliant on the use of a stylus to access many of its narrow links, small icons and buttons –not a good layout to use on a capacitive touch screen that uses stubby fingers.
HTC’s solution for the problem was to make use of the amazing HTC Sense user interface which allowed users to easily access Windows without problems.
While many people did like the HD2, it recently got pulled out of Vodafone’s mobile phone line up for 2010. The device is still available through the network provider, but exclusively through business plans. T-Mobile has been quick on the draw and is now offering the HD2. No word yet has been given if the HD2 will be compatible with later WinMo updates such as version 7.
For more details, catch the source here.
Classic Square JRPG hits the iPhone
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Okay, before any nutty purists arrive to correct that title, yes, “Square”.
Technically, Square does not exist anymore, not since the 2003 merger that renamed the company as “Square Enix”. The Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II games however, are purely Squaresoft titles. Anyway, enough about the company name semantics, the point of the matter is these two games are some of the pioneer titles in the Japanese RPG genre, and they are heading to the iPhone.
The two games are actually ports of the enhanced NDS versions of the game; no actual details have been given if the cinematics will also be included in the iPhone version nor if there has been any addition to the gameplay or storyline.
Most fans of Japanese RPGs would already be familiar with the FF franchise thanks mostly to the success of Final Fantasy VII and its many spin offs such as Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core and the other FF mobile game, Before Crisis.
The arrival of the FF series on the iPhone is monumental not for the game’s actual playability (though it is quite fun to play), but for the significance of having an FF title for the system. Many originally consider the iPhone as a mobile phone and not as a gaming handheld system. Despite this, Square Enix and many other game developers are now recognizing the market value of the iPhone as a platform for games.
On the other side, the more support game developers give towards the development and creation of downloadable content and full downloadable versions of games is moving the trend towards the sale of digital content over physical products. While this may have its own advantages with distribution and publishing, this also alienates many game collectors and will further encourage piracy (since it is purely in digital format).
TomTom Facing Serious Competition from Nokia
Monday, January 25th, 2010
TomTom was originally king of the GPS hill, and while that may still be the case there has been a significant decline in the sales performance of standalone GPS devices due to many mobile phones having support for satellite navigation technology. This competition between TomTom and sat nav phones is coming to an all new level as Nokia just announced that it will be offering all of its GPS capable smart phones free voice guided navigation services through its Ovi Maps service.
This is a major blow to TomTom, who has already taken a slightly lesser but still significant blow from the Android OS’s Google Maps service. While Google Maps navigation is free, it is still reliant on a fast internet connection and in the end, relying on Google Maps can eat a bit of your allocated monthly download limit. Nokia’s Ovi maps on the other hand, offset this charge through preloaded maps (you can even download maps from a desktop or a laptop then transfer it to your phone).
On the same day that Nokia announced that it will be offering free Ovi Maps navigation to its customers, the stock market saw a solid 10% drop in TomTom’s share prices.
Originally, Nokia’s free maps service was only limited to certain mobile phones; particularly it’s’ navigation edition devices. This new offer extends to every single Nokia smart phone with GPS capabilities; thereby increasing the value of its devices.
Speaking of the Navigation Edition free map service, Nokia’s Ovi store also has another unlimited service –free music downloads for selected Nokia music phones. While it is quite unlikely for Ovi to ever extend this service to other devices, it would certainly change the playing field for many online mobile music stores. Spotify would certainly be facing a tough challenge if ever this happens.
HTC Bravo to Arrive This March
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
The Nexus One certainly made for quite the distraction during most of December and early January. As some might recall, the HTC roadmap for 2010 (which is basically the initial 2010 mobile phone line up of HTC) displayed eight amazing mobile devices that had a lot of people interested; but when news that HTC was also developing the Google phone, everyone’s attention got diverted. Oh, and speaking of diversions, we also forgot about the upcoming HTC Touch.Brew.
Anyway, leading the lineup of devices on the roadmap is the uber phone, HTC Bravo. The device packs plenty of features that we see in the Nexus One. The Snapdragon 1GHz CPU, AMOLED touch screen and even the visual form of the Bravo is similar to the Nexus (though the Bravo was announced earlier). Different from the Google phone is the inclusion of for HD video recording for the Bravo as well.
Recent reports are pointing to a March release for the Bravo under T-Mobile; the phone is also expected to be released by 3 Sweden as well. For those who are not too keen on getting the Nexus One from Vodafone in the next few months might want to consider getting the Bravo instead.
Aside from the Bravo, the roadmap revealed about four more Android smart phones and three Windows Mobile devices. The Windows Mobile devices are originally slated to use WinMo 6.5 with the TouchFlo user interface; but with the recent announcement that WinMo 7 will not be compatible with custom UI, we might see the Photon, Trophy and Tera fitted with either WinMo 6.6 or have the UI stripped out. As for the other Android phones such as the Legend, Salsa, Buzz and the Tide, we will just have to wait and see if HTC is still going to push through with those.
SE Kurara to be Launched Early, Renamed to Vivaz
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
The Sony Ericsson Vivaz is a Symbian touch screen smart phone with an 8 mega pixel camera with HD video recording and it will be released sometime around the first quarter of this year.
If you were wondering why this mobile phone just popped out of nowhere, it is because this is the very same Sony Ericsson Kurara that was being leaked sometime around October to November of 2009. The phone is still pretty much the way it was; it has that sleek, stylish form that Sony Ericsson is known for, a 3.2 inch WVGA touch screen, the Symbian OS and of course, the much anticipated 720p video capable 8 mega pixel snapper.
It is a great package all in all, but with other HD capable devices getting confirmed for release (HTC Bravo, Motorola MOTOROI, LG Apollo and others); it makes sense that Sony will be launching their HD phone first.
For those who have been in a bit of doubt with the Symbian OS; it’s a valid concern. After all, Sony Ericsson’s Satio did get previously pulled out of shelves and had its sales suspended. The problem was of course, fixed. The patch for the firmware not only fixed many of the problems but has also enhanced the battery life of the device by streamlining the power consumption. The streamlining was so effective that it was also implemented on the Sony Ericsson Aino and the Yari.
The Vivaz will most likely be getting its formal announcement during the Mobile World Congress this coming February; and we can expect the following specs to be confirmed -3.2 inch screen, support for FM radio, WiFi, AGPS and even a TV output port for images and video. The Vivaz also has a sister phone, the SE Kanna. The Kanna will have all the specs of the Vivaz with the addition of a slide out physical keyboard.
Vodafone Bringing Back 3G Booster
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
If you are one of those unlucky few people who live in areas with very bad signal strength for 3G, Vodafone is bringing back the good old Femtocell Sure Signal hub in order to provide a secondary source of 3G.
Of course, the signal will be piggybacking on your existing broadband connection so if you also use your internet heavily, expect a little bit of bandwidth loss. That aside, Vodafone has also reduced the price of Femtocell to less than half of its original price and they have also done without the extra monthly £5 fee as well.
While it is a big convenience for anyone who relies heavily on 3G, it is more common for people at home to simply connect to their local WiFi connection with their mobile phones. Better yet, it is often easier to boot up the laptop or desktop to fully enjoy the browsing experience with the luxury of having a full keyboard, mouse and large screen –not to mention being able to conserve that allotted monthly download limit as well.
The question still remains, why does Vodafone need to boost its 3G network at a micro scale?
The reason is because Vodafone just launched the iPhone this January and the network operator will also be bringing the Nexus One to the UK, this means that two of the most 3G-hungry mobile phones will be eating up much of what the company has advertised as the fasted 3G connection in the region.
While this technology is impressive, it would be better if there was a signal booster for 3G users in public areas instead of having it at home. Home users would always have the convenience of having a broadband connection (a prerequisite of the Femtocell for installation) which is a more suitable network for browsing as compared to 3G.
Sony Ericsson Kurara to be released as Vivaz
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Some pictures and scant details about a phone known as the Kurara have been circulating the internet for a couple of months now, but the phone has just received an official acknowledgment from Sony Ericsson in the form of a press release. The Kurara has been renamed the Vivaz and is purportedly Sony Ericsson’s successor to its top-end camera phone the Satio. While the 12 megapixel Satio was only rivalled in its photographic prowess by the Samsung Pixon 12, it seems that the Vivaz will be geared a lot more towards video.
With a 3.2″ TFT screen employing 16 million colours the Vivaz will come with true 16:9 widescreen proportions with a 640 x 360 resolution and will be greatly enhanced by the PowerVR SGX graphics acceleration on board.
The Vivaz’s main highlight is undoubtedly its 8.1 megapixel camera which, while taking a step down in megapixel count from the Satio, gets one over on its predecessor with its 720p HD video recording capabilities. There will be plenty of other features to enjoy on the camera such as face detection, image stabilisation and autofocus, and a TV-Out port is included in addition.
While the Vivaz is evidently geared towards video it seems a bit of a letdown to hear that it only comes with 75MB of internal storage capacity. This is greatly enhanced, however, through the support of up to 16GB microSD cards and an 8GB card will be included with the phone.
Bucking the trend to move towards operating systems like Android the Vivaz will run on Symbian S60, like the Satio before it. Operating on quad band GSM the Vivaz will also have 3G available through HSDPA as well as GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi, USB and Bluetooth with A2DP. As already mentioned, there is a TV-Out port and a 3.5mm headphone socket is also included.
The fact that Sony Ericsson removed its press release regarding the Vivaz shortly after publishing it suggested to some that it was not meant to be revealed to the world just yet. The press release is back online now, however, so it seems that this was just a minor glitch. We do know that the phone will be heading towards European markets at the end of the first quarter. No news of prices or what sort of Sony Ericsson Vivaz deals will be available but it has been speculated to go on sale for in the region of £400-500.
Galaxy Spica is UK Bound, Renamed Portal
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
The Samsung Galaxy Portal will be the newest Samsung Android phone to hit the UK, but we all already know this device by its earlier names, Galaxy Lite, and the much more recent Galaxy Spica. And while it would not make sense determining how the Korean company comes up with these names (Genio, Corby, Omnia), it is good to know that the phones are getting shipped for the UK.
T-Mobile broke the news as the Samsung Galaxy Portal has been added to the operator’s line up of mobile devices offering the device for free to its subscribers on many plans (Combi 20 to Combi 40). T-Mobile is also giving an addition internet booster for the device for £5. For Combi 15 plan holders, the phone is £70 for 18 months and £45 for 24 months.
The Samsung Galaxy Portal i5700 weighs about 124 grams and has the dimensions of 115 x 57 x 132 mm (as listed by T-Mobile). The phone’s battery can deliver up to 5 hours of talk time or 360 hours of standby time on a full charge. The built in 3.2 snapper should do a fine job of taking photos and videos. The phone will come with a 1GB memory card as well.
Many would be happy to know that the Portal will be getting an update to the new Android version 2.0 (along with the Galaxy). Currently, the phone is using Google’s Android 1.5 Cupcake. Samsung has stated that it will release the update within the next few weeks.
Aside from the Portal, Samsung’s lineup of devices will also be beefed up with the new Genio Slide and the (Genio) Folder, both of the two devices will be coming with support for 3G networks (a new addition since the Lindy) and hopefully, WiFi support as well.
ITG’s XP Phone to be Priced Like Smart Phones
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
When you have £500 to spare, would you rather buy a mini laptop or a smart phone?
The big net books over smart phones argument have been over and done with a dozen times, and more often than not, the best agreeable solution is to buy a decent net book and a really cheap phone –on the average at least. For people who simply need to access social networking sites, a good high-end smart phone would do the trick; when it boils down to individual tastes (like it always does), it becomes more of selecting one specialized gadget to combo with a cheap one.
Anyway, for people who still cannot decide, ITG is now providing a more amiable solution to the question: by providing a net book phone.
Yep, after several months, the ITG XP Phone has surfaced again; ITG is still willing to create custom spec devices and the given bundles looks pretty close to a mobile phone in terms of size, and a really low end net book in terms of specs.
The XP phone is expected to come at a price of 280 to 450 Euros, depending on the spec configuration as users will have a choice of hardware options for the device. RAM will come in 512 MB, 1GB and 2GB variants. The device will have a solid state drive that will range from 8 to 64GB as well as a separate hard drive ranging from 30GB to 120GB.
While it has not been confirmed if the processor can also be customizable, the device will run on an AMD CPU. For the screen, users can choose between 4.3, 4.8 and 7 inches; all of which are touch screens. It was also originally announced that device would have an onboard camera.
Of course, since XP does not have software for voice calls and other mobile phone features, the device will have a separate interface for those features.