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Helprog from SE=First.com has given us the nod to some rather peachy live shots of Aspen, Sony Ericsson’s latest WinMo handset. The handset was announced yesterday, although previously leaked shots pretty much told the whole story. Head on over to se-first and take a look at the full gallery.
Author Archive
Live Pictures: Aspen
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
SE Promotes Its Green Credentials
Monday, February 1st, 2010Sony Ericsson have been one of the most active manufacturers in terms of attempting to address environmental concerns in their product lines. Daniel Paska, Sony Ericsson’s environmental expert, has given a bit more insight into the processes that Sony Ericsson use to boost its green credentials during a seminar.
Mr Paska stated that SE “… employs the same environmental standards across its entire global footprint. The company has divided the environmental requirements for its products into three levels: basic requirements (legislative requirements) – additional requirements (customer requirements) – and top-level requirements (our own requirements)“. Whilst it’s easy to declare that a company is taking such issues seriously Mr Paska gave some concrete examples of just how seriously Sony Ericsson is taking the matter. For instance, the company spends $100,000 verifying subcontractor data to ensure that they have control over what materials are used in their products, a sum of money made all the more significant when one considers that SE have recently been losing large sums of money.
Mr Paska gives some other examples too, which serve to show that SE isn’t simply responding to legislation on environmental issues, but taking a pro-active stance and tackling issues before they have a legal requirement to do so. The main thrust of SE’s environmental policy recently has of course been its Green Heart brand, which is essentially a range of products that are as environmentally friendly as the manufacturer can make them. The main challenge, however, will be to take this from being a niche line to being the dominant force in its portfolio. So far SE’s major handset release and flagship handsets haven’t been Green Heart products.
Carphone Warehouse Discontinues Aino
Sunday, January 31st, 2010The UK’s largest mobile phone retailer, Carphone Warehouse, has stopped selling Aino. Some stores still have stock left, but for those that have already sold their stock of Aino handsets no more will be forthcoming. Aino hasn’t been on sale for very long, only a few months really after being launched alongside Satio. Both handsets were temporarily pulled from sale in the UK late last year after software faults, but were quickly back on sale once the problem had been fixed. This time though it looks like a more permanent arrangement, for Aino at least anyway. Satio is still doing well, indeed Sony Ericsson UK reported that sales of Satio alone had seen their UK market share increase two percentage points. Aino hasn’t sold as well as Satio with its headline grabbing 12 MP camera, but it is still something of a surprise to see sales of Aino end only a few months after launch.
Abelin: New Android Handset at MWC?
Monday, January 25th, 2010There are a fair few rumours doing the rounds on the tubes right now that Sony Ericsson may be set to unveil another Android handset at MWC in addition to Robyn. Apparently this new Android handset, Abelin, will resemble a Blackberry, in as much as it is supposed to have a physical QWERTY keyboard at any rate. Other details are predictably sketchy at this stage, but the current talk is of a 5 MP camera and of it being part of the XPERIA range with some even bandying around a designation of ‘X9′. To be honest it sounds remarkably similar to Faith, the WinMo QWERTY handset that was leaked the other week. Could they be the same handset and someone just got the OS mixed up? Possibly, but then Faith only has a 3 MP camera and the specs list for that is a lot more developed than what we are hearing for Abelin. MWC can’t come fast enough!
[via pointgphone.com & others]
Debrand Your Satio With SEUS
Monday, January 25th, 2010Good news everyone! (Anyone else read that in a Dr Farnsworth voice?) Well good news if you have a Satio you want to debrand … Lollylost100 has come up with the goods! He posted up a Polish language guide on how to do it using SEUS yesterday, but the English language version has gone live today. You can take a look at the guide, as well as downloading the custom pack, here. Lollylost100 has also posted up a debranding tutorial for Aino, but as yet that hasn’t been translated into English … soon though …
Thanks Lolly!
O2 Lists X10 Early, Promptly Removes It
Sunday, January 24th, 2010It looks like O2 is one of the networks in the UK getting the X10 when it’s released. CoolSmartphone discovered an apparent error in O2’s online shop that listed the X10 as a choice when searching for accessories. O2 made the same blip with the HD2 a few weeks before that handset went on sale. O2 later contacted CoolSmartphone to inform them that they had removed the X10 reference from their accessories page as there had been no public announcement of their involvement with the handset yet. All in all another sign that the X10 can’t be too far away now.
Large Gallery of DoCoMo X10 Live Shots
Sunday, January 24th, 2010Check out this large gallery of X10 pictures over atk-tai.impress.co.jp. Nice high quality live shots of the DoCoMo version of the X10, due to launch in April in Japan. A few of them below, but head on over to atk-tai.impress.co.jp for the full gallery.
Video: DoCoMo X10 Demo
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Here’s another video of that DoCoMo X10 we posted about earlier today. The clip has no sound unfortunately, but it does again show the ‘whited out’ sensor/camera at the top of the handset and it’s a pretty nice demo of the handset to boot!
Sony Ericsson Posts 1.043 Billion Euro Loss for 2009
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Something of a mixed bag in Sony Ericsson’s annual figures, which were released today. On the face of it the figures don’t look particularly good with sales down from 11.244 billion euros in 2008 to 6.788 billion euros in 2009. Shipped units fell from 96.6 million in 2008 to 57.1 million last year and operating income plummeted from -113 million euros in 2008 to -1.018 billion euros in 2009. All that translated to a pre-tax 2009 income of -1.043 billion euros.
Sony Ericsson’s President, Bert Nordberg, talked about a refreshed portfolio as being key to the company turning itself around and in particular mentioned the X10, which many are viewing as the company’s best chance to catch up with rivals and inject fresh interest in the brand. Sales have suffered recently with the last quarter of 2009 seeing a 40% decrease year on year. Sony Ericsson put the blame for this on the shrinking global handset market, which saw an 8% decrease last year. However, they also pointed to “… a faster than anticipated shift to touch screen phones in the mid-priced sector of the market”. This may come as something of a surprise to customers and industry watchers given the popularity that mid-range touchscreen handsets like LG’s Cookie and Samsung’s Tocco Lite have enjoyed for more than a year now.
Throughout 2009 there had been speculation that parent company Ericsson was thinking of abandoning the joint venture with Sony, but both Ericsson and Sony contributed funding to the tune of 350 million euros to the venture, 50% of that figure coming from each parent. So far Sony Ericsson has used 255 million euros of that, but retain a 200 million euro fund for use over the next two years. Mr Nordberg pointed out that the restructuring costs and spending cuts were taking effect with Sony Ericsson’s debt being reduced.
Read the full statement here.
Video: Vivaz Basic Walkthrough
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Daniel Sandblom over at the Sony Ericsson Product Blog has posted up a video demonstrating Vivaz’ basic functionality. It is very basic and I doubt any reader of this blog would seriously need any of the information in the video, however, it does at least show off the handset and its menus a bit more so still worth a watch.
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