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.
Posts Tagged ‘Sony-Ericsson-Vivaz’
Sony Ericsson’s 2009 End Report
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010SE 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.
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.