Sony Ericsson today announced the rumoured W902 - a Walkman branded C902 with a bundled 8 gigabyte memory card to take your music library with you everywhere - as well as the W595, the W580’s successor.

Both the W595 and W902 are quad-band GSM phones with UMTS/HSDPA 2100 network support. Both phones feature the Walkman 3 player, and both are based on the A2 software platform.

The W595 features a 3.2 mega pixel camera (fixed focus), stereo speakers, ShakeControl with the built-in accelerometer, Bluetooth, TrackID, and more. It also comes bundled with a 2 gigabyte memory card. The W595’s display is similar to the one on W902 - a 2.2 inch QVGA-resolution TFT display, capable of showing up to 262.144 colours.

The hot thing today will not be the W595, though, as Sony Ericsson also announced the W902, the new Walkman flagship feature phone. This phone combines the 5 mega pixel auto focus camera in C902 with 8 gigabytes of memory and all the latest music features. As said, the display is a 2.2 inch TFT display at QVGA resolution. It is, however, made of mineral glass to keep scratches away, and so is the camera lens. W902 also features Shake Control, an accelerometer, Bluetooth, TrackID, FM radio, Google Maps, geo-tagging (without GPS, though), and much more.

- We all want more from our mobile phones than ever before, said Ben Padley, Head of the Music Category at Sony Ericsson, and continued:
- If you love music but don’t want to compromise on imaging and video, we have used our expertise as music phone specialists to give users a truly multimedia experience with this latest phone. The W902 is one of our most high-performing phones yet and perfect for those who want it all.

The HPM-77 comes bundled with the W902, and Sony Ericsson promises the W902 will feature an excellent sound quality, like the W980, that has yet to be launched.

Both phones will be available in Q4 this year. W595 will be launched in four colour variants (Active Blue, Cosmopolitan White, Jungle Grey & Lava Black), while W902 will be launched in three colour variants (Volcanic Black, Wine Red & Earth Green).

Maximys over at SEMC Blog has just reported that the upcoming PlayNow Arena services will be launched in two versions; one for your computer and one for your phone. I like the look of both versions, and I sincerely hope this will be used by consumers. This should also make it easier for new musicians to make a name for themselves.

Maximys also added that the services will soon be launched in Sweden and the United Kingdom, while the rest of us will have to wait a bit longer. I’m sure I’ll get round to do a review of the service once it launches, though.

Here’s an internal test view at the PlayNow Arena service for computers, also dubbed the Web service.

And here are a few screenshots of the handheld services for mobile phones, dubbed the WAP service.

Source: SEMC Blog

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 “contuined 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 netto 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.

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.

Eldar is a man who once loved Sony Ericsson. With the latest models, this love is gone and it hurts him. It seems like the line-up for the announcement at July 22nd is nothing to bring back the love again. Read his impressions about the three phones in the following articles:

Sony Ericsson W902
Sony Ericsson W595
Sony Ericsson W302

Yet another of the rumoured phones to be announced on July 22 has today been leaked - W302, codenamed Feng, which is a Walkman branded S302. This means it’s got a 2 mega pixel fixed focus camera, 176 x 220 pixels display and it runs the A2 software platform.

We told you about the T610 remake almost two weeks ago, and now more photos of this phone, still only known by its codename (Remi), have been leaked. Remi is a candybar phone, probably for the T-series range of phones. It features a mediocre 3.2 mega pixel camera without auto focus, though with a flash LED, as well as HSDPA for speedy Internet connections. It’s basically a generic version of W890. Remi is not going to be announced on July 22.

Let’s start off with Feng…

Continue reading “Feng and Remi goes live”

Here’s a menu interface walkthrough of the Sony Ericsson G702, codenamed Beibei, that was never announced.

[Thanks phoner!]