If nothing happens, Sony Ericsson's headquarters will soon be invaded by angry Sony Ericsson fans

Sony Ericsson today announced its Q2 financial results. During the second quarter of 2008 Sony Ericsson achieved break-even results, and once again declared that the market is “proving challenging”. This has to be the third time they’ve come up with those ground-breaking statements. I’m guessing that’s what their “continued R&D investments” have been used it, as it most certainly wasn’t used for researching and developing anything phone related.
Another ‘highlight’ in Sony Ericsson’s press release about the Q2 financial results is the announcement of Symbian Foundation. To me it seems like this was only added because there was nothing just slightly exciting left for the PR crew to add.

So, let’s get to the results. They’re bad - really bad.

• During the second quarter of the year, Sony Ericsson just managed to ship a total of 24.4 million units; that’s lower than the total amount of shipped units in Q2 2007. YoY change: -2.05 %
• The sales brought in a total of 2,820 million Euro. Once again, significantly lower than last year’s sales. YoY change: -10.35 %
• The gross margin fell from 29.2 % in Q1 to 23.1 % in Q2. YoY change: -28.14 %
• The operating income has turned negative, and is now at -2 million Euro. YoY change: - 100.63 %
• The net income is now down to 6 Million Euro. YoY change: -97.28 %

Isn’t that just pathetic? Sony Ericsson yet again blames the market for being challenging - did I say that before (?) - and once again don’t think the mid/high-end markets are the ones to go for. Once again, my guess is that they are looking at their own facts and numbers, and found out their mid/high-end devices are simply not popular. I wonder why…

I guess faithful Sony Ericsson owners can start getting acquainted to getting larger and larger amounts of low-end phones.

- We are aligning our operations and resources worldwide to meet an increasingly competitive business environment and to help restore our capability for profitable growth. The measures we are taking are aimed at becoming a faster, more agile and more cost efficient organisation that can continue to create innovative products that excite consumers, says Hideki Komiyama, Sony Ericsson’s President in the press release.

- Our target is to achieve a reduction in operating expenses of Euro 300 million annually, with the full effect expected to appear within a year. We estimate that our restructuring charges will be of the same magnitude as our reduction in operating expenses, and we will incur such charges as our measures are implemented, he continues.

What he fails to mention is that this will mean up to 2,000 Sony Ericsson employees will get sacked. Such a pity.

I sincerely hope this is the kick in the behind Sony Ericsson needs to rise again. If not, then I don’t have any plans of staying with this company.

You can read the full joke over here.

Filed under: Announcement, Corporative, Market, Market share, Videos

(9 votes, average: 3.44 out of 5)

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Sony Ericsson today officially confirmed the rumours - July 22 is the date of the next product announcement. According to our information, a total of three handsets will be announced - W302, W585/W595 & W902. Alicia (W707) is a cancelled project.

Once again we’ve got the stuff about the phones, but we’ll keep it to ourselves for now. Sony Ericsson didn’t like our recent leaks, especially not the C905 one, so we’ll play good this time

You can check out Sony Ericsson’s minisite for the upcoming announcement here.

Filed under: Announcement, Music, Walkman

(4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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It has to be one of the most surprising news these days: The Big 5 coorporate.

Nokia today announced plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own and then contribute the Symbian and S60 software to the Symbian Foundation. Sony Ericsson and Motorola will contribute technology from UIQ, DOCOMO has also indicated its willingness to contribute its MOAP(S) assets. From these contributions, the Foundation will provide a unified platform with common UI framework. A full platform will be available for all Foundation members under a royalty-free license, from the Foundation’s first day of operations.

The annual membership fee is a bargain of 1.500$.

Plans are to get the thing rollin’ on the first half of 2009 with an expected complete framework in 2010.

Make sure you tune in to the live webcast here at 11:00 GMT.

While waiting, have a further look at the press release here and the Symbian Foundation website with the whitepaper here.

Filed under: Announcement, Corporative, Future, Operating platform, UIQ

(6 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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On the 17th of June Sony Ericsson invited me for their press event in Amsterdam. The day started as usual with a slide show by the head of Sony Ericsson in Benelux. At first he wanted to remind us of the fact that Sony Ericsson has already sold 66.5 million Walkman phones and 22 million Cyber-shot phones. Here some more numbers about Sony Ericsson as a brand;

Continue reading “The newly announced products”

Filed under: Announcement, Article, C series, Camera, Conference, Corporative, Cyber-shot, F series, Games, J series, K series, Prototype, Rants, S series, Upcoming

(6 votes, average: 2.83 out of 5)

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The world-known tennis player Maria Sharapova signed a 4-year contract with Sony Ericsson back in January about working with Sony Ericsson and being Sony Ericsson’s first global brand ambassador.

Today we’re seeing some of the first results by this partnership, as Sony Ericsson today announced the Maria Sharapova Design Collection, which basically consists of four accessories for your mobile phone. The accessories are called IDC-31, IDC-32, IDC-33 and surprisingly IDC-34. You can check out the photos of the accessories below in the same order.

They’ll hit the market in Q3. Oh yes! The press release also reveals that Maria Sharapova’s handset is a Sony Ericsson T303 - how exciting and very unexpected!

Continue reading “Sony Ericsson announces Maria Sharapova Design Collection”

Filed under: Accessories, Announcement

(5 votes, average: 4.2 out of 5)

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Along with the five other phones being announced yesterday (well, six, including the J121) was also the G700 Business Edition, which is basically a G700 in a new grey-ish colour without a camera on the back. Still lacking is W-LAN - why, oh why? A business edition G700 should have W-LAN!

The G700 Business Edition will only hit Asia-Pacific regions, so it’s a no go for European and American companies.

Filed under: Announcement, Corporative, G series, Special edition

(11 votes, average: 3.82 out of 5)

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Here they are! Hope you’ll enjoy them, and do feel free to press the thumbnails to get the full size image (it’s not that fun to just look at the thumbnails, is it?). PS. Sorry about the N95 8GB comparisons - guess he had to find another brick to compare the C905 with.

Thanks, MR!

Filed under: Announcement, C series, F series, Gallery, Games, J series, K series, S series

(17 votes, average: 4.29 out of 5)

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