Just wanted to drop a note that Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow Arena service has finally launched. Visit www.playnow-arena.com to check it out. You can also check a demo video of the service right here!

More details about PlayNow Arena are available in this post.

Filed under: Announcement, Customization, Music, News

(5 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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According to Danish and Swedish mobile magazine Mobil, Sony Ericsson’s long awaited PlayNow Arena service will launch in Nordic countries this Monday. The service has been postponed quite some time, but it should be ready on Monday. The prime focus of the PlayNow Arena store will naturally be music, and Sony Ericsson will have one million songs ready for customers in the Nordic countries on Monday, with no less than four million songs in the pipeline. The best part, however, is that all the songs will be free of any DRM protection, so you can copy your songs unrestrictedly, which can be very useful if you get a new phone, computer, etc. Continue reading “PlayNow Arena set to launch on Monday!”

Filed under: Music, News, Upcoming

(5 votes, average: 4.2 out of 5)

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Four days ago, Sony Ericsson appointed a new President to lead Sony Ericsson India. His name is Anil Sethi, and even though he’s only been in the chair for a few days, he’s already got major plans about bringing Sony’s high-quality TV / display brand, Bravia, to India.

- In Japan if you see we have already integrated the brand Bravia in the handset business and with the time we will do that in India too, says Sethi.

It seems like a great and long-awaited move. Hopefully it’s not just branding for the sake of it, as explained in this rant, but being that I’ve never personally tried any of the Japanese handsets with Bravia branded displays, I cannot comment on that.

Sony Ericsson’s market share in India is at about 13 percent, and compared to Nokia’s huge market share of 62.5 percent it might seem like a dead end, but Anil Sethi believes otherwise:

- We are aware of people’s need to be connected. The people is rural India will be using our AM phones so we know that there are special needs there and we know how to fulfil, he says in an interview with NDTV Profit.

In addition to this, Sony Ericsson India is also getting ready for the 3G technology to kick off in India. It is expected by Sony Ericsson that India is to contribute almost a quarter of the global mobile phone business over the next two years, so the whole 3G preparation might not seem like a bad idea.

Source: NDTV Profit

Filed under: Bravia, Market, News

(11 votes, average: 3.36 out of 5)

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Mobile News International reports that Sony Ericsson has increased its UK share by 5 percent, to 25 percent, for the fourth week running. This makes Sony Ericsson the second largest handset manufacturer in the United Kingdom.

The five percent gain comes mainly from launch of the C902, which we’ve just published a review of, on contract, as well as cheaper phones, such as W350 and W380, on prepay. In addition to this, Sony Ericsson’s W580 and W910 are selling well on cheaper contracts.

According to Mobile News International’s sources, Sony Ericsson expanded too quickly, resulting in the release of many unneccessary phones. Last year, Sony Ericsson announced 15 phones more than the previous year. Sources claim each phone require over 100 extra engineering and marketing staff. This sounds like one of the most reasonable reasons as to why Sony Ericsson is looking to cut 2,000 employees.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see Sony Ericsson stepping up its game later this year. Sony Ericsson’s president, Hideki Komiyama, has officially said there’ll still be financial problems to a certain degree in Q3 this year, but Q4 should be different. Especially with the launch of such phones as C905, W595 and W902.

Source: Mobile News International

Filed under: Market share, News

(8 votes, average: 2.75 out of 5)

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Sony Ericsson just recently launched an entirely new website called “Life Captured”. It’s a Cyber-shot campaign / contest that can make it possible for you to star in a movie or make a movie in a new film project, called “Life Captured”.

Sony Ericsson has hooked up with Mike Figgis, known for directing a large number of movies, and is giving you the chance to tell your life story with your camera phone, and create a film from these snapshots.

Five winners will win a C902, and will be invited on a VIP trip to the the film’s premiere at London’s Raindance Film Festival in October this year. Finally, one winner will be revealed at the premiere to win a grand prize, also to be revealed at this premiere.

You can find the website here, with lots of information on this contest. It all sounds very exciting, so do let us know if you sign up!

Filed under: Camera, Campaign, Competition, Cyber-shot, Fun, News

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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Sony Ericsson’s Developer World website has just been revamped with an entirely new look. The site now focuses a lot more on the latest news, latest tools and documents, latest forum threads, etc. You can even rate the articles and pages now, although I’m not quite sure it’ll do any good on a developer website. Anyway, the option is there for you to use!

The phone database has been updated quite a lot as well. You can now perform searches based on features, such as by software platform, screen resolution or various developer capabilities. It’s all very neat, and works a charm.

The update goes for both the English and the Chinese site, so do check them out!

[thanks Xell for the heads-up]

Filed under: Developer, News

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Sony Ericsson recently selected Swedish mobile games developer and publisher GlobalFun as one of its two official content acquisition partner for the upcoming PlayNow Arena and Fun & Downloads services.

As of now, there are no official statements from Sony Ericsson, but a few from GlobalFun.

- We have since the beginning of our business aimed to provide our customers, of which Sony Ericsson is a highly valued one, with high quality premium content. This appointment serves for us as a proof that our strategy on content acquisition and account management has been and still is the correct one, says Bertil Krumnack, EVP Sales & Business Development at GlobalFun.

Also commenting on the deal was GlobalFun CEO, Marcus Johansson.

The trust that Sony Ericsson is showing us by appointing us as one of two content acquisition partners is very flattering. We will do our very best to exceed the expectations in this area and to continue to grow our mutual business, says Marcus.

In my opinion, Sony Ericsson could easily have picked a better games developer than GlobalFun. Sure, their games are okay, but there are many other developers out there that publish better games. A 5-year contract has been signed to ensure close cooperations between the two companies.

Filed under: Corporative, Fun, Games, News, Upcoming

(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)

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