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Sony Ericsson: Dead, dying, don’t even bother. We’re a Sony Ericsson Free Zone!

What will it take to get the mobile community excited about a Sony Ericsson device?

Steve Jobs announcing a 100% acquisition, perhaps.

The Xperia looks nice. I had a look at it last week at 3’s event. I was particularly impressed.

To be clear I was impressed at 3. Not at Sony Ericsson. I was impressed at the range of handsets 3 were sporting.

But the Xperia. Lovely. But oh dear. Oh dear me. The moment you switch it on, you realise the problem with the device: It’s a K850 running Windows Mobile. What-a-mistaka-to-maka. Your common-or-garden geek will probably put up with the slouchy operation, but I don’t know what your average normob will make of the crashes, slow UI build-up and sluggish operation. Too bad. Doesn’t matter, does it? They’ll upgrade to it and find themselves locked to an 18 month contract with it.

I haven’t bothered taking a look at Sony Ericsson in-depth ever since they did a Motorola and screwed up their K800i winner of a handset.

I remember when we all used to look forward to Sony Ericsson product announcements. I wanted to see what they’d come up with next.

They’ve lost their way. The devices used to be class-leaders. Now they’re being eaten alive by LG, Samsung and the rest of the marketplace.

I posted an announcement last week about a new Sony Ericsson ‘launch’. I heard about the new handsets they were bringing out.

And.

Well I couldn’t even bring myself to click on to the webcast.

I’ve had it with Sony Ericsson.

You’ll see no more coverage here on SMS Text News until something interesting happens: Either they go out of business, get bought by someone or produce a piece of brilliance.

This won’t actually materially affect your SMS Text News experience because there’s absolutely nothing going on with Sony Ericsson. Not for the foreseeable future.

Thassit, Mr Sony: Keep.On.Chucking.Out.The.Usual.Rubbish.

Next!

26 COMMENTS

  1. well they have the Cyber-shot C905 with its 8meg camera
    and their walkman phones sell well, and are nicely designed.
    the current bassets allsorts cybershot will sell by the bucket load too.

    sure they arent catering for the smart phone market – but they are selling to the mass markets
    so i don't expect them to go bust anytime soon.

    motorola on the other hand, haven't released anything of late, except rehashes.

  2. An 8 meg camera and what else?

    It's same old stuff, rehashed, recycled… HOW are we meant to move forward
    as an industry when it's the same thing in different sizes and packages?

  3. Hmmm could argue that with Nokia and the N-Series – don't get me wrong – I *love* my N95 – but now Samsung are starting to kick ass with Symbian – i've got a feeling my next phone might not be another Nokia.

  4. Ewan they may not be doing anything excited but they still sell loads, look at your normobs how many samsungs did you see? it was mostly Se's and Nokia's.
    They are very popular with youth market.

  5. You're absolutely correct Ricky. And how depressing is that.

    If you're a mobile applications developer, forget it. Anyone that buys a
    Sony Ericsson, just… forget them. WORSE if they're contracted on 18
    months. Forget that customer for at least 18 months.

  6. well its got stuff like face recognition and links into uploading services like flickr /facebook
    yes not totally new – but all stuff that seals the deal at the carphonewarehouse or o2 basildon.

    n series sells well – but is minor compared to 6300 and 6500 sales.

  7. This is the problem. Sealing the deal at Carphone Warehouse means you're
    holding back development and innovation by another 18 months. Dear me.

    Sony Ericsson devices are telephones that also include text messaging
    facilities. And a few other interesting services.

    How the hell are you supposed to buy your mum some flowers with three clicks
    on a Sony Ericsson device?

    You can, of course, use the device's piece of shit browser….

  8. 🙁 oh no… are they really that crap?

    My P1 hardly misbehaves… at least no more than my previous Nokias.

    I use 4 email addresses in a SEVEN email client I installed, plus newsgator, blogger, Shozu, even the native RSS feeds, eqo and/or fring sometimes

    I also use the native browser and/or the mini Opera but my browsing needs are not that great provided my email/calendar/sync needs are addressed

    I'm up for an upgrade in the autumn but what are the alternatives? with the same size of the p1?

  9. The Xperia is barely an SE handset anyway – an HTC-made device with a Microsoft-made OS…. apart from the initiative to commission it and the sticky label, what's SE about it?

  10. That's so depressing. The Xperia was meant to be THE iPhone killer. S-E have managed to go from being THE name in cool phones (I had a T39m, a T68i, then a T610 switched to MOT for a RAZR and then back to SE for a K800i). I lusted after the P900 series.

    Sad.

  11. Well I wanted one of those but now I'm confused… What do you advise?

    Ignacio
    – Sent from my P1 with System SEVEN –

  12. With the recent slump in profits and expecting to lose more going forward, they probably aren't selling as many as we think. These are old handsets which have been out for some time. Sony Ericsson is going backwards. LG and Samsung will overtake them.

  13. With the recent slump in profits and expecting to lose more going forward, they probably aren't selling as many as we think. These are old handsets which have been out for some time. Sony Ericsson is going backwards. LG and Samsung will overtake them.

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