Sony Corp is to buy full control of the Sony Ericsson mobile phone venture from its Swedish partner as it seeks to boost its consumer products offering and to catch up on smartphone and tablet makers such as Apple and Samsung

via Sony buys Ericsson out of mobile phone venture | Reuters.

It’s about time, isn’t it? If anything, it’s rather late in the day. I’d have liked to have seen what Sony would have done with the company 1-2 years ago. Still, I’m excited at the possibilities. Now, perhaps, we will see truly a suite of truly integrated consumer (and mobile) electronics? Come on Sony!

This week we reminisce about the devices we’ve owned and loved over the years. We highlight a few we think were real ‘market changers’, a few lemons and speculate about who might make the next game-changer. Rafe also lets slip the secret of his magic drawers.

Amongst the devices we discuss this week are the:

• SonyEricsson P800
• Sony CMD Z5
• Nokia 6210
• O2 XDA (HTC)
• Nokia N95
• Nokia E61 and E61i
• Nokia N82
• Blackberry 7230
• iPhone 2G
• Orange SPV / HTC Canary
• Nokia 1011
• Motorola RAZR
• Nokia 5110 and 3210 with Xpress-on Covers
• Original Sidekick
• Treo 180

Episode 7 is also available on Soundcloud.

There are lots of ways to follow the podcast or you can subscribe using iTunes and other popular services.

Technical note: We’ve changed the way we serve downloads to podcast subscribers this week – this should address some recent feedback about tags and also improve audio quality. Please let us know in the comments if you have any questions or problems following the change.

In case the Champions League has already passed you by, the key information you need to know is that Manchester United will be squaring up against FC Barcelona. It will be a match to watch, I’m sure.

If you’d like to be there, here are the details you need:

The Football FANatic campaign will bring a Manchester United FC fan and an FC Barcelona fan to London to drum up support for their respective sides amongst Londoners, using their Sony Ericsson Xperia smartphones. They will be paired with two London based Football FANatics who will use their local knowledge to help them reach as many fans as possible in London and beyond.

Football FANatics from Manchester and London interested in the role should visit www.facebook.com/sonyericssonfootballfanatic to enter. They must explain why they are the biggest Football FANatic and why they should be chosen for this fantastic opportunity to go to this year’s spectacular UEFA Champions League Final Wembley 2011 in London.

In the week running up to the UEFA Champions League Final Wembley 2011, the Football FANatics will team up to host events, write blogs, secure endorsement from footballing heroes, film themselves on their Sony Ericsson Xperia smartphones and take part in footballing challenges to convince British football fans that their team is the best. Come 28 May, Sony Ericsson hopes all of London and the UK will be fully behind one team or another.

The winning pair, who generate the most number of followers on Facebook, will go to the UEFA Champions League Final Wembley 2011, courtesy of Sony Ericsson.

Instead of bashing away on the keyboard I decided to do an audio opinion on Sony’s Android tablet announcements today.

Posted via email from MIR Live

Interesting times…

TOKYO, April 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Corporation (“Sony”), announces “Sony Tablet” that delivers the perfect combination of hardware, content and network with seamless usability for a high-quality, engaging entertainment experience. Based on decades of engineering heritage, Sony is developing two tablets with unprecedented design, including S1 (codename) which is optimized for rich media entertainment and S2 (codename) which is ideal for mobile communication and entertainment. “Sony Tablet” will become available in the global market starting in fall 2011.

“Sony Tablet” is equipped with the latest Android 3.0 which is designed for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. Both tablets are WiFi and WAN (3G/4G) compatible and users can not only browse the internet or check e-mail but they can also smoothly access digital content including videos, games and books through Sony’s premium network services and more, on-the-go at any time.

S1 has a 9.4-inch display for enjoying the web and rich content on a large screen. Its off-center of gravity design realizes stability and ease of grip as well as a sense of stability and lightness, offering comfortable use for hours.

S2 has two 5.5-inch displays that can be folded for easy portability. In contrast to existing tablets, its unprecedented dual screen presentation and usability allows its displays to be combined and used as a large screen or for different functions such as playing video on one screen while showing control buttons on the other.

“‘Sony Tablet’ delivers an entertainment experience where users can enjoy cloud-based services on-the-go at any time. We’re aiming to create a new lifestyle by integrating consumer hardware, including ‘Sony Tablet’ with content and network,” said Kunimasa Suzuki, Corporate Executive, SVP, and Deputy President of Consumer Products & Services Group.

“Android 3.0 is a new version of the Android platform with a new holographic user interface that is designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. I’m excited about “Sony Tablet” as it will further spur the development of applications and network offerings which users are looking for,” said Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President, Mobile, Google Inc.

Also, in the mobile computing category, the market for PCs which realize high productivity is expected to steadily grow, particularly in emerging markets. Therefore, Sony will also remain committed to strengthening its VAIO brand and introduce increasingly compelling products which offer new value propositions to the market.

“Sony Tablet” features

• Designed for portability and intuitive gripping

With its off-center of gravity form factor, the 9.4-inch S1 offers stability and a sense of lightness, offering comfortable use for hours.

The dual screen S2 comes with two 5.5-inch displays which can be used together as one large screen to browse websites and more. They can also be used for different functions as users can watch a video on one screen and input commands on the other, or check email on one screen and use the other as a soft keyboard.

• Seamless Usability and Performance

Through Sony’s knowhow for combining hardware and software, “Sony Tablet” realizes optimal usability and performance. Because of Sony’s rapid response technologies, users can perform smooth, quick touch-screen operations and enjoy fast and efficient website loading. The keyboard arrangement is also optimized for the large screen, making email and SNS communication a breeze.

• Rich entertainment experiences through various network services

Through Qriocity(1) music and video services, users can enjoy rich video and music content. Also, through PlayStation®Suite, users can immerse themselves in high quality first generation PlayStation® titles. Additionally, users can easily download ebook content from Reader™Store(2) and use both tablets as digital reading devices. The integration with various services allows users to take their entertainment experiences on-the-go. Furthermore, “Sony Tablet” is equipped with functionality that organizes content for easy access.

• Remote access functionality with AV devices

Through “Sony Tablet”, users can control home entertainment devices as well as enjoy content in new ways. S1 uses infrared technology and works as universal remote controls for a variety of AV devices starting with < BRAVIA >. Users can perform functions like turning on their TVs, changing the channel and adjusting the volume. Also, through DLNA functionality on “Sony Tablet”, users can “throw” personal content to large screen televisions or music to wireless speakers.

In 2010, Sony launched a network platform called “Qriocity” which connects many of Sony’s network-enabled devices, and has been expanding its services into global markets. Also, Sony Computer Entertainment has been providing various contents and services for PlayStation users through PlayStation®Network, which now has over 75 million registered accounts (as of March 20, 2011) worldwide.

Simultaneously, Sony will continue to announce various devices which leverage these services. Starting in early 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment announced the next-generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP) while Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications brought “Xperia™PLAY” to the market. Sony is introducing “Sony Tablet” to deliver an entertainment experience which integrates hardware with network services that deliver rich content.

With the establishment of Consumer Products and Services Group in April 2011, Sony will focus on accelerating the development of innovative next generation products and aim to deliver a new lifestyle by strengthening the integration of hardware and network services.

Long rumoured, it’s nice to finally get a bit of a look at the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. The advertisement for the phone hit Youtube moments ago and I’m pretty sure it’s going to get a lot of attention.

What you see above is an Android handset that is ‘PlayStation Certified’ — along with the uber-familiar PlayStation controls that slide out there. Nice.

I don’t have anything for you beyond the clip above (that I took from the video) and the Youtube video below. That said, I’d expect the handset to sport some pretty advanced specifications.

The full details for the device will hit the internet at 6pm on the day before Mobile World Congress (13th February). I tell you this thanks to the announcement published recently on the Sony Ericsson Facebook page.

In the meantime, have a look at the nicely produced (and slightly creepy) ad. Android is indeed ready to play.

Also — I wonder how many other Android devices will be ‘PlayStation Certified’? Obviously I imagine Sony Ericsson should get first (and only?) dibs in that regard, but the logo to the top right here does put one in mind of other manufacturers being able to certify certain models for PlayStation status. Who knows? We shall see.

Sony Ericsson’s LiveView concept is a genius, genius idea. A small watch-like screen that sits on your wrist, connected to your phone, easily programmable by third-party developers.

The possibilities are flipping endless. Do you want it to be a watch? A calendar view? A remote camera?

But there’s been a bit of frustration amongst some users and developers because of a few incompatibilities. You’ll be pleased to know the Sony Ericsson chaps have just completed a software update that solves a lot of the issues. Here are some of the things they’ve fixed:

- Improved stability in the phone application (latest update available on Android Market as of minutes ago)
- Improved plug-in handling and limit of number of installed plug-ins raised to 30.
- Connection stability improved – most identified reasons for random disconnects should be fixed now.
- There were some cases of random reboots reported, and all those reported crashes have now been resolved.
- Compatibility with competitor phones is greatly improved, both in regards to stability and to battery life time.
- Automatic reconnect when coming back in range improved.

If you’d like to pick up a LiveView — I’m seriously considering it — you can do so at the SE Shop for a highly reasonable £61.

I was pleased to hear that Sony Ericsson are shortly about to issue an update to their X10 range. The X10 itself will — as Android Central reports — pick up some rather nifty benefits as a result including 720p video recording with continuous autofocus.

What I’m most pleased about, though, is the news that the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro devices will also get 2.1 (over-the-air) which will make them them the most powerful Android phones in that form factor. And make no mistake, it’s a very popular form factor with a lot of users.

(More on the X10 Mini Pro shortly, I’ve been testing that for some time.)

Now you’ll remember me raving over the X10 Mini a few weeks ago (such a small device running Android… just brilliant), well, the next model in that range is the ‘Pro’ and the key difference is the slide-out keyboard.

The team filmed Maria’s unboxing with a professional camera and spliced in some HD footage captured at the same time on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz. Good thinking.

I wonder if we’ll be seeing more celebrities and stars unboxing videos in future? Have Sony Ericsson started a trend here?

I particularly like Maria’s comment when she pointed out the manual…

“Then we’ve got the manual. I don’t know who’s interested in that. I just put the battery in the phone and start playing around with it.”

Agreed.

Here’s the video:

Well I have to say I’m a big, big fan of the X10 Mini. I simply loved the device when I came across it at Mobile World Congress back in February and now that it’s arrived in my hands, I can confirm it’s still fantastic.

To be clear, the device isn’t for everyone. If you’ve got massive hands and you can only just work a BlackBerry, then the X10 Mini might be a little too mini for you. But if you remember those ultra small Nokia devices from a few years ago — the 8200 series, I think — then the X10 Mini may get the juices flowing.

It’s an Android device featuring 3G HSPA and a 5 megapixel camera. It’s running on Android 1.6 (upgrade to 2.1 coming in a few months). It’s got a 2.6″ screen and it’s sized around the same dimensions of a credit card.

Here’s the Mini next to my Oyster card:

I am supremely impressed that Sony Ericsson have packed so much functionality into such a small device. Back in February I predicted it would be a hit with women (think: handbags) and with chaps who wanted a full-featured but small phone to fit nicely into a jacket pocket.

If you’re a geek, it’s also perfect for the weekend. The Mini does everything your Nexus One or HTC Desire does — but in a super-small, convenient footprint. It’s the sort of device you’d take on holiday or away for the day when you don’t want to be troubled with a hunking lump of phone.

Writing on the phone is actually rather easy — the on-screen keyboard defaults to a T9-style entry system that will be immensely familiar. I got pretty quick after a few minutes of playing around typing. While I wouldn’t write essays on the Mini (as I often do on the BlackBerry 9700), the phone is perfect for quick communication. I really like the fact I can review all my incoming email, delete/archive/star stuff as necessary and access my calendar, contacts and so on, but from such a convenient and discrete form factor.

Here’s a vid I took showing it in action:

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I’ll post some more on the device soon. If you’ve any questions about it, just ask. Also, check out our X10 Mini flickr gallery.

Well, here I am… Rafe filmed me doing an intro to the device here:

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And for anyone who’s interested in the phone, we also got the Sony Ericsson chaps to take us on a walk through of it, here:

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I would seriously consider getting one of these ‘for the weekend’. I particularly like the ‘Pro’ which comes with an integrated QWERTY keyboard…

We spent a lot of time on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz at Mobile World Congress. A lot of time. We even managed to get some time with one of the Product Planners responsible for the device (and sister unit, the Vivaz Pro).

Since Symbian helped cover out costs to get to MWC, it was a dream — a rareified dream — to actually be able to sit down and cover the device in-depth. So much so that I’ve just produced 6 different videos of the Vivaz (on top of the couple we’ve already published). The device is one of the next breed of Symbian devices really does have me reaching for my wallet. I’m looking forward to seeing what Nokia are able to deliver but until then, the Vivaz is clearly one of the front-running top-of-the-range Symbian devices hitting the Western markets.

And it’s coming soon from Vodafone UK. March 9th, to be precise. I seriously might get one of these. The key reason? It’s camera. It comes with an 8.1 megapixel camera that captures HD video — AND it’s got a wickedly cool autofocus function.

Standby, I’ll be publishing these videos shortly.

And they know next to nothing about the handsets. That gets annoying. I usually end up having to ‘sell’ the devices to myself whilst the Abercrombie girl or guy is busy trying to describe the ‘goodness’ of the camera.

It’s a total nightmare. Especially if you want to try and capture that ‘pitch’ on camera.

Case in point: I was at a Samsung event the other day. One of the handsome chaps was standing with a girl, both wearing Samsung livery and bearing Samsung phones.

“GSM or CDMA?” I asked.

Blank looks.

“What network is it on?” I asked, hoping that would certainly help narrow it down.

“Errrr,” they both said in unison. Okay then. That clearly wasn’t on the 5-minute briefing they got.

“Do you like the phone?”

Nods.

“What phone do you use?”

Both of them bring out Blackberries. Oooh dear. Fail. I mean, be honest, but be on-message too?

Anyway back to Sony Ericsson. Rafe and I set our expectations to ‘Fucking Shite’ and began setting up the camera.

A chap came over and asked if we needed a demo. Good good. We said yes and explained we needed a demo of everything. I could see Rafe rolling his eyes with boredom. Yet more tedious, ‘and it’s got a megapixels too’ shit.

Turns out our expectations were entirely wrong.

Imagine the shock we got when one of the highly competent chaps showing us one phone said, “Hey, you know what, why don’t you talk to Maiko Ishida, she’s just in the back.”

As the chap strode off purposefully, Rafe and I both looked at each other.

“Who?”

Maiko arrived. A very well turned out young lady. Here she is:

“And what do you do?” asked Rafe.

“I’m responsible for that,” she said, pointing at the Sony Ericsson Vivaz in Rafe’s hand.

“And,” she continued, “I’m also responsible for this,” she said, holding up a Vivaz Pro.

Turns out she’s the Product Planner in charge of delivering both.

And goodness me she knew her stuff. She was excited, energetic, hugely knowledgeable and passionate about her handsets. It made such a refreshing break from the norm. Handset manufacturers really must do more of this. They must bring their backroom design teams out more often. Not only was it a pleasure to film, it was fantastic to get a level of insight into the handset that is generally never available. And we caught it all — authorised — on camera.

We’ll be bringing you Maiko’s videos very soon.

With the current obsession over mobile applications, you really do have to wonder precisely why the PR team at Sony Ericsson decided not to bother to pitch developers on their one big opportunity to ‘face the [mobile] nation’.

Instead the issue of supporting, engaging and working with mobile developers was relegated — well, no, actually, it wasn’t relegated, it was virtually erased from the line-up.

I had expected to see Christoper Martin, Sony Ericsson’s talented Developer Relations head honcho up on stage during the Sony Ericsson launch standing next to Sir Howard Stringer.

Christopher is, by the looks of it, fighting an up-hill battle with the know-nothing internal management at Sony Ericsson. Whilst they have delivered some tip-top devices (more on that later) at the show, you’d be forgiven for assuming that they will be arriving with fluck all applications pre-installed.

Rafe and I had to literally grab a handset at the launch party to find out what they were pre-installing. Giving the odd nod to developers at such a high profile event is simply ridiculous.

So, that was the ‘stupid’ reference.

I hope the developer relations team at Sony Ericsson, headed up by David, get a much needed shot-in-the-arm from the top level management at the company. I’m looking forward to dropping in on the Sony Ericsson AppPlanet event tomorrow afternoon.

Now to the ‘genius’ reference.

In fact, I’m going to put that in another post…

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It leads with super embarrassing headline:

Should Sony Ericsson throw in the towel?

I think that’s mighty polite of the FierceWireless chaps.

I was particularly taken with this paragraph from FW’s Lynnette Luna:

Now Sony Ericsson’s bailout plan appears to be more high-end phones with high quality cameras. The company reasons that consumers want to have a high-quality camera all the time as posting photos on Facebook and other social networks is a favorite pastime. It seems like a creative niche, but will consumers bite in an ailing economy? Right now, there appears to be a chasm in the market. Feature phones–those that have features like music and cameras and are cheaper than smartphones–are in limbo. The replacement handset market has clearly slowed down in this bad economy, but when people are replacing phones, it appears they are either upgrading to smartphones such as the iPhone or trading down to prepaid and lower-end phones. Sony Ericsson needs some tight relationships with operators to get them to promote its devices.

You know you’re doing a spectacularly rubbish job when the nicest media company in the industry posts an editorial asking if you should just simply give up.

Sony Ericsson, reports Lynnette, expects to spunk a whopping half billion dollars in losses. For anyone wanting the exact stats, here we go:

Sony Ericsson said it expects its first-quarter pretax loss to be between $464.9 million to $533.2 million, well below market expectations.

Let’s call that a half billion dollars.

In losses.

They’re expecting to ship 14 million handsets during this period.

I’ll need to get Excel out, hold on. I can’t work this stuff out freehand. There’s just too many zeros.

So, let’s be clear. When Sony Ericsson’s Chief Executive Officer got out of bed on the first of January, he’d more or less committed to blowing a cool half billion dollars in losses.

In losses.

What’s the sodding point in getting out of bed?

Let’s move past that and congratulate the chap and his management team for getting out of bed anyway.

So, I’ve got my Excel spreadsheet ready.

Half a billion in losses, divided by 14 million handsets.

That means every single handset going out the door is going to cost Sony Ericsson $36.

So if you assume your average bollocks Sony Ericsson handset costs, I dunno, $100 to the consumer. The company is so badly organised, so badly managed, that it’s actually costing them $136 to do the deal.

And you can only do that if you’ve got good bankers.

We all know what’s been happening in that marketplace. So let’s hope your parent companies have sufficient cash to let you keep getting out of bed every morning.

If we’re being inventive — and i think Lynnette at FierceWireless is a little bit too polite to mention this point — let me talk to Sony Ericsson’s shareholders here.

Your company is aiming to ship 14 million handsets at a total cost to you — ultimately — of roughly 36 dollars per transaction. Once everything is taken into account — marketing, manufacturing, CEO office furniture, the whole shebang, once that’s ALL taken into account, add ON an extra 36 dollars. Per unit.

A spectacular loss.

But you know what, we could all save everyone a lot of hassle.

Why don’t you just dump Sony Ericsson and go to one of the Chinese third-party OEM chaps. Ask them how much it would cost for 14 million rubbish handsets. You know, mobile telephones with a diary, a task manager, an alarm clock and a text function.

You’d probably be able to get them wholesale for… I dunno… $3 a piece? If you can buy a rubbish Motorola for £9 — albeit it subsidised, shouldn’t we be able to buy 14 million reaaaaally simple handsets?

Hold that thought for a moment.

The company made 2.8 billion EURO in sales revenue in Q1 2008.

So if you’ll excuse the back-of-fag-packet estimations, let’s assume they can do, I dunno… let’s be kind.. 3 billion EURO in Q1 2009? Or roughly $4 billion dollars.

So you bring in $4 billion dollars.

Good news. That’s a LOT of $0.99 McDonalds hamburgers.

The bad news?

You actually spend $4.5 billion.

So you’ve got $500m in losses.

Well you know what, it would probably have been CHEAPER if the entire staff at Sony Ericsson stayed at home and did nothing for Q1 2009.

On the basis of $36 ‘losses’ per handset sold in Q1 2009, they could have gone to a China manufacturer, bought 14 million handsets for $3 each. Stick a Sony Ericsson badge on each. Give each one away with $10 worth of mobile credit and retail them into the channel for $20 each.

That would cost $280 million.

And one would hope that since the staff stayed at home, they’d have avoided blowing the other $220million that made Q1 2009′s losses hit almost half a billion dollars.

My maths is a little skewed. I recognise that.

But the logic is sound.

What the hell are you doing if you’re knocking out handsets at an average selling price of roughly 100 euro and you’re making 26 euro loss on each?

You’re almost sounding as bad as Motorola.

So Sony Ericsson is to focus on high end ‘expensive’ handsets to try and tempt consumers into upgrading to something decent.

Only, how many customers buy their Sony Ericsson handsets?

Almost none.

Sony Ericsson’s customers are the mobile operators. Not you and me. You need the mobile operators to subsidise these expensive handsets.

Annnnnd if you’re wondering just how excited operators are at this prospect, may I point you to T-Mobile UK who were so screwed at the end of 2008 that they’d run out of ‘subsidy budget’. Customers were offered money off their line rental to NOT upgrade.

There’s little in the way of enthusiasm at the operators for funding $700 handsets. And there’s a limited amount of consumer enthusiasm when Apple, Palm, Nokia and the Android Guys are walking up and down the catwalk getting attention from every single customer in the room.

It looks to me as though Sony Ericsson have got caught making telephones.

It’s not about the telephone.

Not any more. The future is interaction + telephone. There’s still a market for $50 telephones — and it’s a big one that every single one of Sony Ericsson’s competitors are eating up.

14 million handsets in a quarter? In roughly 90 days?

Do you want to take a rough guess at just how many Nokia are knocking out in the same period? What is it, between 7 and 10 million units a day in some periods?

So the low-end — traditionally a Sony Ericsson stable — is no longer the company’s focus? Now they want to play with the big boys.

Not with Windows Mobile. The Xperia? The less said about that, the better.

Maybe with S60.

But there’s a lot more companies out there eating the Sony Ericsson lunch before the company’s even got out of bed. Look at INQ winning best handset at the Mobile World Congress last month. Where is Sony Ericsson?

Good cameras. Limited handsets.

Show me the Sony Ericsson developer support. Show me the $1bn app store market/content market for Sony Ericsson devices.

Oh.

Yeah it’s not there and won’t be for years.

What a total disaster. They used to be good! Really good!

Could we reading MIR run Sony Ericsson better than their existing management?

[insert joke about chimp]

In years gone by I’d joke about this kind of thing. But seriously, you have to wonder if a we wouldn’t be able to pull a better strategy out of our arses.

In fact I’d go so far as to say we could. Indeed some of the readers here would love the chance.

I’ll leave it there.

Only, I’d like to point out that we were the first to launch Sony Ericsson News in the MIR TV Show episodes late last year. If you didn’t catch them, you’re missing quite possibly the best Samuel Beckett inspired news reporting on the planet. The feature consisted of one of the team introducing ‘and here’s Ewan with this week’s Sony Ericsson news’. Cut to me simply me standing staring into the camera for 30 seconds before moving on to the next segment.

Brilliant.

An absolute brilliant feature and rather surprisingly one of the most popular features of the early MIR TV Shows. And wholly illustrative of Sony Ericsson’s predicament. What more can you say?

Hire us, Sony Ericsson, hire us all and we’ll fix it.

At the very first of many press conferences at Mobile World Congress ’09, Sony Ericsson launched their newest of the new handsets – the W995.

SE W995 is heralded in as a slider formatted phone, with an 8.1megapixel camera as 8MP is just so last year.

The Walkman phone comes with a 2.6-inch screen, stereo speakers and all the gloriousness of most of their walkman-esque type phones with almost no surprises.

We say almost no surprises, as they’ve also launched PlayNow Movies. A service which trumps the likes of Nokia’s Comes With Music, as it allows movies to be purchased and downloaded via the ‘puter. Hurrah!

The Sony Ericsson W955 is apparently optimised for video playback making it less of a Walkman and more of a Runmen.

Accompanying the phone and for the very first time, is their Media Go. This appears to be client and phone based software for the ease of playing, transferring and organising media on the phone. We’re not saying this is an iTunes clone, but it is coming off sounding a lot like one of those very items.

It even appears, at this stage, to have an encoder on board for converting the right video in whatever format for the handset. There’s even talk of automatically and correctly formatting this media, with almost no user interaction. Hurrah!

Just to add that little bit extra level of service and quality, they’ve bundled in the HPM-77 premium headphones. According to Sony Ericsson these make you “feel like you’re sitting in a recording studio listening to your favourite band live”. The proof however will be in the listening rather than taking anyone else’s word for that.

The W955 is capable of picture capture in an A3 format, from its 8.1megapixel camera without any compromising in quality or so we’ve been informed.

With the likes of WiFI, Quad band EDGE, 3G and aGPS with a bundled in 8GB Memory Stick it’s coming off looking like that best Walkman handset they’ve delivered. Although seeing as they do deliver one every few weeks it appears these days, it’s not really saying much.

Sony Ericsson also briefly utter rumblings at the event of the 3.5-inch screen codenamed ‘ Idou ‘, which is a 12.1 megapixel wonderment scheduled for released around the second half of this year. Marvellous!

Today Sony Ericsson is announcing a deal to pre-load the Fun Text application onto one of its new handsets –  the new C905 Plus on 3 UK, which is to launch in Q2 this year. Fun Text will enable easy access from the handset to online galleries of animation and video content designed for messaging. The application also integrates with the address book on the handset.

 

“With 8.1 megapixels, the C905 already enables the best in user generated content and we are delighted to complement this with the best in professionally generated content”, said James Pycock, business development director at Fun Text.

As the year starts to draw to a close, we thought we’d look back at significant moments in the mobile world during 2008. Ponderings where you can sit down with your grand children one day and say ‘yes, I was there when it happened’, or if you’re too senile by then, they can tell you all about and you can call them liars.

Either way, the following is a recap and in no particular order of occurrence, or importance on what or how they happened in the year of our Lord two thousand and eight.

If there happens to be anything you think we’re missing or paid little or no attention to, please feel free to drop a comment in at the base of this.

The QWERTY keyboard based Smartphones saw a huge resurgence in 2008. With the ‘normal’ near PC layout design of the HTC Touch Pro, Xperia X1, HTC S740 all with their own worth and merits being fairly popular. Along with likes of the keyboard-moulded-around-handsets gaining ground with the BlackBerry Bold, Curve 8900, Nokia E71 and soon to be seen E63.

No one can ignore how well the touch screen phones have done, especially with the likes of the iPhone. Earlier on in the year we saw the 16GB version of the 2G arrive on the scene. Following on from that model the 3G version later on in 2008; although it must have irked some people that it came in so cheap as compared to the 2G version a year earlier. iRage must have been the name for that symptom surely?

HTC had a good year with their Touch Diamond being their best selling handset to date. Just to build on that success, they built the world’s first Google Android powered phone in the G1. Even more kudos has to go to them, for building Sony Ericsson’s first ever Windows Mobile phone with the Xperia X1. They certainly came out of their shell, after really only being known as makers of the SVP Orange handsets.

BlackBerry broke form with two phones in 2008. They launched their first flip mobile with the Pearl Flip 8220, which seemed to be overshadowed by their other imminent release. This was obviously the Storm, the joint venture with Vodafone and Verizon for a full touch screen handset – minus the customary keyboard that everyone associates with RIM devices. They really didn’t do anything by halves on that phone, did they?

2008 was supposed to herald in the next gen of wireless connectivity, when we really only heard some murmurings from a few companies. HTC did unveil the very first ever WiMAX mobile phone towards the end of the year, but only in Russia. Whilst others made a little noise over LTE, but not loud enough in our opinion – here’s hoping 2009 brings better news.

Facebook according to all reports had the largest jump in usage on social networking sites and on mobiles. Not only that, but for all intents and purposes it had its own mobile design for it on 3, by 3. The INQ 1 has only been with us for a while, but to all accounts it’s taken the network by storm and looks to be a success. More handsets in the INQ linage are due in 2009, with the rumour of a QWERTY keyboard/Smartphone version being on the horizon.

Application stores had a great success in 2008, all building on from the growth of the iTunes Apple store for the iPhone and iTouch devices. Google announced their own this year for their own OS based handsets, which we’re promised to see more of too. Their Android Market store has yet to gain the momentum of Apple’s, but there’s always hope for the future. BlackBerry also announced their own take on this, as did Palm with the Software Store. 2009 could be the year of the Widget, who knows?

The OS wars heated up, with Google’s Android being shown off at Mobile World Congress on a few Vanilla handsets and then later on arriving on the HTC/T-Mobile G1. Windows Mobile was launched on April Fool’s Day at the Comedy Store in London , and we’re still all waiting for the punch line. This has been plagued with foibles and troubles since turning up, so much so that their own product manager uses cooked ROMs from the xda-developers site to correct all its faults.

Then there was the Nokia £209million acquisition of Symbian, with the promise to turn that platform into an open source OS. Clearly a gut reaction to Google’s Android, although a risky one at that. Hopefully this will open up the mobile phone market to great potential in much richer features, greater competition amongst them all to improve the platforms that we have around today, whilst keeping the costs low for phones.

Music content on mobiles came in to play in 2008. The PlayNow content for Sony Ericsson had a huge influx of tracks earlier on in the year, which must have boosted the Walkman mobile sales in some shape or form. Nokia stepped on to the dance floor with Sony BMG offering up their catalogue, for the Nokia Music Store. New handsets also came out from them with the offer of free unlimited music for a year, on their ‘Comes With Music’ brand. This must have upset the Apple cart with their iTunes.

The netbooks all had a good year too. DELL, MSI, Lenovo, Acer, Samsung and HP all jumped on the Asus bandwagon during 2008. When they became of interest to us is when they started to have imbedded 3G functionality and the likes of Orange bundling in imbedded SIM cards and offering up contracts for the devices – making them a truly mobile computing device.

Camera phones reached the lofty heights of 8 megapixels this year, or 8.1 if you really want to be pedantic and stand out, Sony Ericsson. Samsung and LG were also at the party, in both regular models and touch screen varieties. Notably absent from the bash were Nokia, who seemed happy with their 5MP offerings. Although a possible leaked roadmap shows off they are still planning an 8MP handset.

In closing, we’re just happy that CERN didn’t turn the world into the opening moments of the film 2001 with their Large Hadron Collider. Well done CERN! No one really wants to go back to being cavemen anyway, protruding foreheads were so last year.

Let’s look forward now to 2009, with more Android handsets, larger capacity on phones, 4G mobiles and flying cars too.

Even before January’s Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show kicks off, SanDisk has won an engineering and design award for their memory cards.

This award goes to their 16 gigabyte microSDHC, and Memory Stick Micro M2 range for Sony Ericsson phones. The achievement was bestowed upon them by a panel of independent industrial designers, and engineers to honour the outstanding design and engineering. Tough crowd, eh?

After this hack was the recipient of a 16GB microSDHC card on his birthday this year, from SanDisk and their PR company Trimedia – it’s now something he cannot live without.

Oddly enough the award falls under ‘Standout in the Wireless Handsets Accessories Category’, where surely it should be in some sort of storage or capacity breakthrough?

Although they were judged on engineering qualities, aesthetic designs and the product’s intended use or function for the users.

With the small small cards being used today in everything from music and video playback devices, to photo and video recording storage and let’s not forget gaming and GPS applications. All that besides just the common house hold mobile phones; it’s about darn time it was recognised for what it’s worth.

Here’s looking forward to the next innovation by SanDisk, and someone’s birthday in 2009 with a 32GB microSDHC card *cough*

Addressing the economy’s issues and quicker than our own government is the network 3, who has just announced a sub-tenner tariff.

In days that feel like the end of days, it’s always good to see someone’s looking out for the common man, by offering them a great deal.

The deal that comes along in the form of a free 3G phone, 100minutes/texts on any network, 300minutes of calls to fellow 3 users, free voicemail access and also unlimited windows live messenger and Skype usage.

Available from December 23rd, this Mix & Match 100 tariff seems to be the bee’s knees. How does it match up to others around? It doesn’t even have a single competitor out there that we can see.

It’s available both in-store and online, great for avoiding everyone else that’s out shopping at this time of year. And no one likes a crowd, unless you’re a pick pocket.

The way this particular tariff works, is that you can mix and match (hence the name) between 100 minutes and 100 texts, with 1 minute = 1text. Previously their best deal was Mix and Match 300 for £15, with the same mobile phone being thrown in, seen in the Sony Ericsson K660i.

A handset that comes along with a 2MP camera, obviously with 3G with HSDPA and in a choice of silver on black or lime on white – an exclusive colour for 3.

If there’s ever a time for £9 tariff, with a phone like this it’s now. Hurrah for 3!

Isn’t it about time others step up to the plate with their offerings too?

Give me a Sony Ericsson WITH Google Android and I will be a happy chap, I reckon.

So report thec ahps at Dialaphone. They picked up this quote:

According to Garfield Brusewitz from Sony Ericsson, the company will start by focusing “on products in the higher segment, but later on will also supplement with products for the broad mass market. The first Android phone from Sony Ericsson is expected to show up for the summer.”

Bring it on. I’d like to see what the designers at Sony Ericsson create…

An interesting announcement came our way from SE today, they’ve decided to join that merry band of men known as the Open Handset Alliance.

In a statement that falls under the heading ‘extending their portfolio strategy’ or saving wonger on licensing an operating system, it’s an interesting move for them.

This now will add the Google developed mobile OS to their existing portfolio of Symbian and more recently, the Windows Mobile platform seen in their Xperia X1.

They’re now in great company with the likes of Motorola, Samsung, LG and Asus all swearing allegiance to the flag today as well.

Reading between the lines on the very little they’ve said on the matter today, they dropped a few key words that made us prick our already perky ears up.

They linked in works such as ‘consumer focussed multimedia handsets’ then threw in named brands such as ‘Walkman and Cyber-shot sub-brands’. Meaning they’re either being subtle as a brick in saying they’re working on an Android based Walkman mobile phone, or are just teasing us with snippets.

Either way it’s a much welcomed turn of events and we look forward to accessing the OS of their handsets with Linux root commands any time soon.

Those guys over at coolsmartphone posted a few items of late from xda-developers.com, on having the panels from Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 run from a HTC Touch HD.

You may or may not be already aware the X1 was designed by HTC for Sony Ericsson and almost runs the same chipset and hardware. So a feat of this nature isn’t all that ground breaking really, but is still quite nifty.

Already been seen around for a while now is the footage of the HTC TouchFLO 3D UI running on the Xperia X1, which we’ve actually seen firsthand too.

Now the concept has come full circle and the reverse is here. Hurrah!

Seen in a video here, is the proof of concept from SprengUK which does come off looking rather good. Although still in beta, we’re sure it’ll be available soon from the forum thread here.

Just to show it is possible and can be done by mere muggles, the gents over at coolsmartphone have uploaded the necessary files to their own HTC Touch HD and run this out for themselves here.

Gone are the days of multiple fascias accompanying a phone, next you’ll have a choice of UIs instead. All without the need of wandering to various sites and download cooked ROMs to be installed.

If anyone’s brave enough to try this out, please do let us know how it all goes.

Looks like you can order it now from Vodafone UK… any takers?