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It’s not been long since my last post, but that was late so this one is on time and it’s been another exciting week in the world of Sony Ericsson! We had the financial results for 2009, Vivaz and some confusion over the X10. We all knew about Kurara of course, but it was nice to finally see it made official, the name though … Vivaz? Sounds a bit like a character from a Spanish soap opera or maybe a washing powder. Will you be taking the Vivaz Doorstep Challenge?

The X10 was also causing a bit of head scratching in some circles with the camera and proximity sensor apparently missing (or covered up) on the Japanese version. So what’s the script? I don’t know, but I have a theory … cost cutting! Sony Ericsson have been trying to save some money recently and so they’ve decided to remove these two features. The forward facing camera won’t be replaced by anything; in a ground breaking piece of market research Sony Ericsson have discovered that no one really uses video calling and they’re just hoping no one actually notices the camera is missing. As for the proximity sensor that will be replaced by a small pin that stabs you when the phone gets close to your face to remind you to lock the screen. Just a theory, you have to want to believe.

The financial results weren’t too hot. Last year saw Sony Ericsson register a pre-tax loss of more than a billion euros. Sony Ericsson themselves are blaming poor sales and a contracting global phone market. Some people are pointing fingers at certain areas of their portfolio as lacking exciting products that can compete with competitors. However, I have to confess something … the loss is my fault. At Christmas I accepted a free advent calendar from Sony Ericsson. I can only begin to imagine the serious economic damage giving me this freebie must have caused them and I am ridden with guilt. I am here publicly offering to post the calendar back to them (with the chocolate still inside) and I will cover postage as well!

Mooooo!

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.