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HelpIt would be impossible for me to do a comprehensive, technically detailed write-up of how Sony Ericsson turned the million Euro incomes to expenses, and I’m sure it’d be rather uninteresting for you as well. That’s why I’m not going to do that nor try to do it. I will, however, try to sum up what went wrong and how. As you’d expect, this rant will reflect nothing but my personal opinions and thoughts on Sony Ericsson’s past and current decisions, as well as what seems to be Sony Ericsson’s future plans. Also want you to know that I’m uncertain whether or not this piece is finished. I can’t make up my mind on whether I should add more to make it more clear, or leave it as it is, so apologies in advance if parts don’t make any sense to you.
The copy/paste-strategy
Sony Ericsson changed its product strategy a few years ago. The company saw huge advantages of making use of the same hardware and software platforms with only few minor changes. Initially, the strategy worked out very well – probably because it was still of limited use.
Sony Ericsson announced the rather amazing K750 back in very early March 2005. The K750 is one of Sony Ericsson’s most innovative phones ever, period. It was such an immense update from K700, and the camera – which was the most interesting feature about it – was built upon the camera of the S700, and greatly enhanced. I doubt it came as a surprise for K750 users when it was announced the best camera phone of the year. The K750 wasn’t one to miss, and sales surpassed all expectations.
At the same day the K750 was announced, Sony Ericsson also announced another very similar phone, which featured the same stunning camera features, while also bringing the Sony Walkman brand into the mobile phone market. The W800 was born.
This is where Sony Ericsson’s now heavily used segmentation has its roots, and it wasn’t long until another Sony Ericsson trend arose. About nine months after the announcement of the W800, Sony Ericsson announced the W810 – a slightly updated W800 with a few hardware upgrades, such as adding quad-band GSM and EDGE functionality rather than tri-band only, and a slightly updated user interface, not to mention the arguably nicer design. And that was about it… Even though not much had changed compared to W800, the W810 sold very well, and Sony Ericsson managed to keep up the hype about their products, for now at least.
A month after the announcement of W810, Sony Ericsson announced the M600. And just about a week after that, the W950 was announced. Both phones were built on the exact same platform with the exact same operating system, with only minor differences to each. The M600 featured a full keyboard, whilst the W950 featured a rather regular keypad. It was obvious that Sony Ericsson had just taken its product segmentation to the next level with the M600 being a business phone, and the W950 being a music phone, although they were 99 percent the same. Have a look at the more recent P1 and W960 smart phones – the story continued.
Later that month, the K800 was announced. This was the successor of K750, and to make it even more obvious that this phone was “a camera”, Sony Ericsson hooked up with its Japanese parent company and branded it the very first Cyber-shot phone. Back then, Sony Ericsson said that only the best digital cameras would wear the Cyber-shot brand, and at the same time promised that the quality of the photos would be beyond the usual. Do you think they’d still be proud to say that about the C902 and K850 today? Personally, I doubt it when it comes to these two in particular as they’re short on quality compared to other market offerings, but I wouldn’t doubt for a second, that they’ll be prouder than ever to say it about the C905.
So, the K800 brought along some hardware upgrades and an entirely new software platform. It took a whole year for Sony Ericsson to announce its newest Cyber-shot flagship, which – in most cases – was no different than the K800. Once again, Sony Ericsson had added the quad-band GSM and EDGE functionality, slightly updated the software, and changed the design to a more appealing one.
By now, Sony Ericsson was slowly starting to fall behind, and had now made it pretty clear to most that they weren’t going to change this “hardware/software swap” trend – and well, they didn’t. As far as I can tell, the portfolio included more than forty of these phones from about 2005 to now. These are:
C902, D750, G502, K310, K320, K530, K550, K630, K750, K770, K790, K800, K810, M600, P1, S302, S500, T250, T270, T280, T650, T700, V640, W300, W302, W550, W580, W600, W610, W660, W700, W710, W800, W810, W890, W902, W950, W960, Z530, Z555, Z710, Z750, Z770, and Z780.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve missed some, or if some of you disagree with me, but fact is that the above mentioned phones are each very similar to at least one or more of the other mentioned phones.
Cutting down on the high-end products
Because of Sony Ericsson’s almost endless line of similar phones, many high-end consumers have left the company for others. Although it is not the only reason for Sony Ericsson’s decreasing phone ASP (average selling price), this has without doubt been one of them.
Sony Ericsson used to be a manufacturer delivering very high-end offerings with basically no comprises on features or size. Lately they haven’t been up for the challenge of keeping up with the game, and were late at incorporating newer, more advanced features into their phone portfolio. Here we’re talking about features such as GPS and WLAN. Sony Ericsson’s portfolio is still very limited when it comes to phones with these features, and while most of the new smart phones feature WLAN connectivity, none of them include a built-in GPS unit. If we’re going to take a look at the feature phones, it’s rather clear that only a few feature a built-in GPS unit, and only one – for now – does also feature built-in WLAN.
And when it comes to features, how many of Sony Ericsson’s latest phones would you say have brought anything new to the table? Not a whole lot of them, I guess, and the stuff that was brought to the table is nowhere near being as innovative as it had been just a few years ago. Take the recently announced T700 as an example – it brings absolutely nothing new to the market, and W890, which seems like the better and cheaper choice, is already on the market and has been for some time. The only thing new about the T700 is its design, and that’s what Sony Ericsson wants people to buy it for. In my opinion, that’s no way to run a company – to create products and hope that they’re bought based on their looks rather than functionality and features. Have a look on over at Motorola in USA, and you’ll know what I mean.
Will this change? Yes, and as a matter of fact it is currently changing, and started changing when Miles Flint gave his chair to the current President, Hideki Komiyama. Sure, it’s taken almost a year now, but I don’t think it’ll be that much longer now. Hideki has made it clear that the situation wouldn’t be much changed in Q3, but that they’re going all in on the fourth quarter of the year, and I must admit that they’ve got a strong line-up for the mass market, while still not forgetting all about the business segment.
Branding – just for the sake of it?
Sony Ericsson has currently got two Sony brands to go on segmented Sony Ericsson products; the Cyber-shot brand, and the Walkman brand. The use of the brands is one of the things Hideki Komiyama has to do something about.
At the moment, Sony Ericsson’s portfolio includes a total of nine Cyber-shot branded phones, from the low-end K550 to the high-end C905. Sony Ericsson’s portfolio also includes no less than 26 Walkman branded music phones, again from the low-end ones, such as W200 and W300, to the high-end ones, such as W902, W960 and W980.
Seeing there is such a great difference in these products varying from the very cheap end of the line-up to the more expensive ones, how is it that even the very low-end phones can wear the same brand of quality as the high-end ones? Well, it’s nothing but a marketing gig.
I am personally finding it very hard to believe that the W200 really “deserves” this Walkman quality brand. In my opinion, it was merely because the Walkman range didn’t include any really cheap offerings, so they just smashed on the Walkman brand, and went on hoping no one would notice. The same goes for the Cyber-shot range and many of the phones in it, especially the K550. They can’t seriously think that this phone is going to replace a digital compact camera. If so, they’re barking mad! Once again, this was just to make the range a bit more complete. What’s worse is that the K550’s Walkman copy, the W610, is actually a better camera phone than K550, because of the – in my opinion – horrific post-processing of the Cyber-shot camera software. Believe it or not, the difference is there, and it is evident.
The same thing goes for the Cyber-shot branded K770 and its generic sibling, the T650. Although the difference is less noticeable in this case, mainly because the camera module has been replaced for an excellent Samsung module, it should be clear to most that – up until now – the branding has been done just for the sake of it. By the way, the T650 remains one of Sony Ericsson’s best camera phones in terms of quality – even without the wonderful Cyber-shot brand.
Some will wonder why I’m writing “up until now”. This is mainly because Sony Ericsson recently announced the C905, that can actually replace a low/mid-end digital compact camera, and because most Walkman phones are actually decent music phones, although the majority are still victims of Sony Ericsson’s heavy segmentation, meaning the cameras are just about worthless in most cases.
Discouraging financial results
I don’t know about you, but I loved every single bit of the Q2 financial results, and I even laughed when I read the part about the huge profit drop. The results were indeed very discouraging, and I’m hopeful that they were discouraging to such a degree that it opened Sony Ericsson’s eyes.
The operating income turned negative. I’m most certain this means they’ve manufactured too many phones that simply didn’t sell. I blame a large part of this problem on the amount of similar phones, and Sony Ericsson’s excessive software modifications for each of its two Sony brands, especially when it’s far from up to the level it should be.
One thing I loved about the financial results is that Sony Ericsson claims that the market is proving challenging. I think someone needs a wakeup call, ASAP! It really can’t be that hard to understand that the market doesn’t want three different variants of each phone, where the only difference is the branding and price. In addition to that, it really can’t be that hard to understand that the expenses will triple when manufacturing and marketing three similar phones instead of just one.
Conclusion
So, is it really as bad as it sounds? Well, partially. So far I’ve only mentioned the bad stuff and how it went bad. Sony Ericsson has come up with some fabulous phones recently, including the C905, G700, G900 and X1. These represent the very best Sony Ericsson has to offer, and this golden league will soon welcome a few very much needed additions.
The fact that Sony Ericsson’s sales didn’t go down substantially also means that there are still many people out there that do want to buy Sony Ericsson products. Lately, Sony Ericsson’s strategy just hasn’t been any profitable, mainly because the number of similar phones has been growing a lot.
Another factor that goes to prove that Sony Ericsson knows about their problems is the fact that about 2,000 employees are to be sacked. How can this possibly be a good thing, you ask? Well, Sony Ericsson’s portfolio has been flooded by – let’s just call them copy/paste phones – and lots of them! It’s been reported that Sony Ericsson had expanded its portfolio by about fifteen mobile phones year on year, and I suspect the majority are copy/paste phones. For each phone a massive crew is needed of more than 100 employees. Yes, that’s for each phone, even if they’ve been through the photocopier! That means the majority of the 2,000 employees that are to be sacked could come from the development and marketing of copy/paste phones. Official spokespeople have even said that a great part of the cuts will be in Sweden, which adds up perfectly to the above mentioned theory.
But wait, what about the rest? Well, it’s not exactly unusual for a company with such an immense profit drop to lay off a number of employees, and I guess that’s also the reason in Sony Ericsson’s case.
I’ll leave you with that, and wrap up this rant. It’s not all bad, and things are (slowly) turning, although it’ll definitely take some time. If you’re willing to wait, you should do it. If not – well, you might want to reconsider, and keep in mind that it really isn’t as bad as it looks, although it might sound harsh and feel like the most stupid thing in the world to support Sony Ericsson at times.
I’ll disagree with you here.
Articles about financial matters and marketing should be presented together with survey results and market analysis. Stating the main reason for all this is the drop in the high-end phones and the lack of state-of-the-art features, without any numbers or surveys to support it, sounds more to me like the opinion of a disappointed geek. And I pray you don’t feel offended, since I can speak from my geek side, too, and I can say I’m also disappointed with some of the facts you nicely put in the article. We geekish people like to compare specs charts and decide on our next buy on that alone. But I don’t think that’s enough evidence to support your ideas about SE financial results.
Market segmentation is a valid concept and is actually a very useful marketing tool. Targetting different kinds of people is very efficient when dividing a company into departments, because employees get specialized in a certain group’s needs and company strategies are more directed towards the customer. Branding a boring black phone with a white/orange case and the walkman logo can make it more appealing to teenagers and effectively widens the sales perspective to more than just one kind of people.
This leads to another fact: people choose their cell phone by the looks. I think people like us, who value their cell phones based on their features and specs, are only about 10% of the world. You buy a K850 then show it off with your friends, and only those who actually know the specs sheet by memory will get over excited. Then you show it to an average shopper and they will smile and go on thinking their RAZR/RIZR/KRZR/etc will always be far better than your black brick, until the next fashionable Motorola comes out, that is. People don’t understand about screen pixels, screen inches, 3G bands, amount of memory, Flash/Java, etc. Maybe it varies from one place in the world to another, but here (Argentina) the average person thinks any clamshell tops whatever bar shaped phone you put it up against.
I think basing the company’s strategy on widening the looks and design of their portfolio is very well founded on marketing studies and surveys, because it just makes sense.
One point where I think SE has a flaw, though, is advertising. I’ve watched a handful of phone ads by SE and they seem pretty awkward to me. They fail to accomplish what advertising is supposed to do, bear the brand into people’s minds. Show the cool, show the fashionable parts. Of course, if I were to look at those commercials, I would certainly be able to tell when they’re trying to fool me, as I think you would too. Take a Motorola ad for example, and you’ll get what I mean. But it’s effective nonetheless!
If you want people to buy Sony Ericsson, then you need to show them why it’s cooler to have a SE phone. We’re obviously not talking here about calling features, any phone can give you that and people looking for a device that will let them reach their children anytime, will be very happy with the cheapest Nokia. You want to catch those looking for excitement in a cell phone. And SE desperately needs a new flagship, a phone that makes everybody fall in love with it, or at least notice it on the stand.
Aside from that, I personally think SE needs a hand in design, though I really don’t care that much about looks. I do think SE has many excellent points over the competition, that’s why I’m here reading your blog and posting comments. Usability is a great pro, no other brand has such an intuitive and responsive UI, the way the features relate to one another really shows the time and concern SE puts into developing their software. Cameras are generally a bit better quality than competitors, although that can be highly subjective. Customization is awesome! And that is based on an excellent software design underneath. I haven’t seen better Flash menus than Sony Ericsson’s. Java support is almost flawless (coming from a developer), the SE developer site is up there with Nokia’s, better in my opinion. Battery life is generally longer than the competition. Anyway, I’m boring you here. The point is, I don’t think we’ve seen the best you can get from SE ads.
What I do agree with you on, though, is that I really want Sony Ericsson to stir in the right direction and make that profit line go up again, hehe. We may dream with the day when people will choose a SE phone and they’ll know why.
Cheers.
I’ll disagree with you here.
Articles about financial matters and marketing should be presented together with survey results and market analysis. Stating the main reason for all this is the drop in the high-end phones and the lack of state-of-the-art features, without any numbers or surveys to support it, sounds more to me like the opinion of a disappointed geek. And I pray you don’t feel offended, since I can speak from my geek side, too, and I can say I’m also disappointed with some of the facts you nicely put in the article. We geekish people like to compare specs charts and decide on our next buy on that alone. But I don’t think that’s enough evidence to support your ideas about SE financial results.
Market segmentation is a valid concept and is actually a very useful marketing tool. Targetting different kinds of people is very efficient when dividing a company into departments, because employees get specialized in a certain group’s needs and company strategies are more directed towards the customer. Branding a boring black phone with a white/orange case and the walkman logo can make it more appealing to teenagers and effectively widens the sales perspective to more than just one kind of people.
This leads to another fact: people choose their cell phone by the looks. I think people like us, who value their cell phones based on their features and specs, are only about 10% of the world. You buy a K850 then show it off with your friends, and only those who actually know the specs sheet by memory will get over excited. Then you show it to an average shopper and they will smile and go on thinking their RAZR/RIZR/KRZR/etc will always be far better than your black brick, until the next fashionable Motorola comes out, that is. People don’t understand about screen pixels, screen inches, 3G bands, amount of memory, Flash/Java, etc. Maybe it varies from one place in the world to another, but here (Argentina) the average person thinks any clamshell tops whatever bar shaped phone you put it up against.
I think basing the company’s strategy on widening the looks and design of their portfolio is very well founded on marketing studies and surveys, because it just makes sense.
One point where I think SE has a flaw, though, is advertising. I’ve watched a handful of phone ads by SE and they seem pretty awkward to me. They fail to accomplish what advertising is supposed to do, bear the brand into people’s minds. Show the cool, show the fashionable parts. Of course, if I were to look at those commercials, I would certainly be able to tell when they’re trying to fool me, as I think you would too. Take a Motorola ad for example, and you’ll get what I mean. But it’s effective nonetheless!
If you want people to buy Sony Ericsson, then you need to show them why it’s cooler to have a SE phone. We’re obviously not talking here about calling features, any phone can give you that and people looking for a device that will let them reach their children anytime, will be very happy with the cheapest Nokia. You want to catch those looking for excitement in a cell phone. And SE desperately needs a new flagship, a phone that makes everybody fall in love with it, or at least notice it on the stand.
Aside from that, I personally think SE needs a hand in design, though I really don’t care that much about looks. I do think SE has many excellent points over the competition, that’s why I’m here reading your blog and posting comments. Usability is a great pro, no other brand has such an intuitive and responsive UI, the way the features relate to one another really shows the time and concern SE puts into developing their software. Cameras are generally a bit better quality than competitors, although that can be highly subjective. Customization is awesome! And that is based on an excellent software design underneath. I haven’t seen better Flash menus than Sony Ericsson’s. Java support is almost flawless (coming from a developer), the SE developer site is up there with Nokia’s, better in my opinion. Battery life is generally longer than the competition. Anyway, I’m boring you here. The point is, I don’t think we’ve seen the best you can get from SE ads.
What I do agree with you on, though, is that I really want Sony Ericsson to stir in the right direction and make that profit line go up again, hehe. We may dream with the day when people will choose a SE phone and they’ll know why.
Cheers.
I’m sure a Java app exists for that.
I’m sure a Java app exists for that.
The Vietnamese Lunar Calender Java App is just for looking up the lunar calender only, you could not make alarms to remind of events like the original calender app.
The Calender should display lunar calender together with western (international) calender like many calenders printed in China and Vietnam.
In Vietnam and China, many and many important events should date in lunar calender, especially for businessman.
The Vietnamese Lunar Calender Java App is just for looking up the lunar calender only, you could not make alarms to remind of events like the original calender app.
The Calender should display lunar calender together with western (international) calender like many calenders printed in China and Vietnam.
In Vietnam and China, many and many important events should date in lunar calender, especially for businessman.
SE in the past is full of breathtaking innovation. Consistently different hardware. Just say T68, T610, K700, K750. They’re all innovative, with different hardware each other.
Recent SE by Flint lacks in innovation, as pointed by Michell and Eldar. They insisting using old ARM-9, and producing about 20++ different phones. The hardware cost doesn’t make a big gap each other, because it based on the same platform.
But they positioning it awkwardly as low, mid and high-end with a big gap of prices. A firmware gimmicks separate all of that ARM-9 phones.
It’s not healthy strategy, just like Nokia does. But Nokia doesn’t compensate something. SE always compensate some feature, for example, lack of AF just for the sake of branding. Furthermore comparison, old N95 8GB got a new firmware version of Symbian. But will K850 has JP 8.4 and Capuchin? NEVER!
By implementing Capuchin into all A200 phone (in upcoming release of phone firmware version), the flash-based java apps demand could be higher, thus increasing the popularity of Capuchin itself.
If SE says that Capuchin and new JP made exclusively only for high-end, that’s nonsense.
It’s the same nonsense as SE wrong decision by putting Walkman branding into low-end phone (like W300.) Ironic, isn’t it?
The recent walkman and cybershot branding, IMO, is just a waste of R&D investment. Look at C902 and W902. It just the same ARM9, and doubled-up the operating cost. . . Doubled-up mass-producing cost. . . Doubled-up promotion cost. . .
They sacrificing Face-Detection in W902, and sacrificing SensMe in C902. More software minor changes to follow.
Not good strategies anymore. It worked in the past, but not now. Walkman and Cybershot branding in one phone, just imagine!
And by doing this, R&D cost cut to half, simply because they’re concentrating to develop and mass-producing one phone, instead of two.
If they still want to make CyberShot and Walkman different, they must using different hardware that has a clear difference each other. For example, dedicated audio DSP only for Walkman.
You can read my opinion in Here.
I’m sorry if I made a mistakes. Everybody makes a mistakes.
Hiron
SE in the past is full of breathtaking innovation. Consistently different hardware. Just say T68, T610, K700, K750. They’re all innovative, with different hardware each other.
Recent SE by Flint lacks in innovation, as pointed by Michell and Eldar. They insisting using old ARM-9, and producing about 20++ different phones. The hardware cost doesn’t make a big gap each other, because it based on the same platform.
But they positioning it awkwardly as low, mid and high-end with a big gap of prices. A firmware gimmicks separate all of that ARM-9 phones.
It’s not healthy strategy, just like Nokia does. But Nokia doesn’t compensate something. SE always compensate some feature, for example, lack of AF just for the sake of branding. Furthermore comparison, old N95 8GB got a new firmware version of Symbian. But will K850 has JP 8.4 and Capuchin? NEVER!
By implementing Capuchin into all A200 phone (in upcoming release of phone firmware version), the flash-based java apps demand could be higher, thus increasing the popularity of Capuchin itself.
If SE says that Capuchin and new JP made exclusively only for high-end, that’s nonsense.
It’s the same nonsense as SE wrong decision by putting Walkman branding into low-end phone (like W300.) Ironic, isn’t it?
The recent walkman and cybershot branding, IMO, is just a waste of R&D investment. Look at C902 and W902. It just the same ARM9, and doubled-up the operating cost. . . Doubled-up mass-producing cost. . . Doubled-up promotion cost. . .
They sacrificing Face-Detection in W902, and sacrificing SensMe in C902. More software minor changes to follow.
Not good strategies anymore. It worked in the past, but not now. Walkman and Cybershot branding in one phone, just imagine!
And by doing this, R&D cost cut to half, simply because they’re concentrating to develop and mass-producing one phone, instead of two.
If they still want to make CyberShot and Walkman different, they must using different hardware that has a clear difference each other. For example, dedicated audio DSP only for Walkman.
You can read my opinion in Here.
I’m sorry if I made a mistakes. Everybody makes a mistakes.
Hiron
This comments for all SE phones.
Some minor changes could help SE win billions of man’s heart:
1. The Cellphones’ Calender should display lunar calender together with western (international) calender like many calenders printed in China and Vietnam.
In Vietnam and China, many and many important events should date in lunar calender, especially for businessman (lunar new year, full moon …). An option to display or not display Lunar calender is great idea.
2. The Name in Contacts should have 3 fields: Family N, Middle, Surname, so that the Contacts in Phone can be compatible with Microsoft’s Address Book (First, Middle, Last).
I get confused when synchronizing the P1i with Windows Address Book.
One more function you should have that is the ability to display different types of name order (Chinese Type, European Type). There should be one more field or option in EACH RECORD of the Contacts let users choose between DISPLAY IN FAMILY N, MIDDLE, SURNAME ORDER and DISPLAY IN SURNAME, MIDDLE, FAMILY ORDER. The order of name: family, middle, surname is very popular in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese Communities (Billions of people). I always have trouble when there are two types of name order existing in the same Contacts (Phone Book).
3. There should be Search (or Find) function in Phone Log (Calls) like the existing function in Contacts. If SE can also integrate this function in other applications (Web), it will be great.
Phone, Contacts, Calender are very Important Basic Functions of a cellphone. If SE could do these, Asian market is yours.
This comments for all SE phones.
Some minor changes could help SE win billions of man’s heart:
1. The Cellphones’ Calender should display lunar calender together with western (international) calender like many calenders printed in China and Vietnam.
In Vietnam and China, many and many important events should date in lunar calender, especially for businessman (lunar new year, full moon …). An option to display or not display Lunar calender is great idea.
2. The Name in Contacts should have 3 fields: Family N, Middle, Surname, so that the Contacts in Phone can be compatible with Microsoft’s Address Book (First, Middle, Last).
I get confused when synchronizing the P1i with Windows Address Book.
One more function you should have that is the ability to display different types of name order (Chinese Type, European Type). There should be one more field or option in EACH RECORD of the Contacts let users choose between DISPLAY IN FAMILY N, MIDDLE, SURNAME ORDER and DISPLAY IN SURNAME, MIDDLE, FAMILY ORDER. The order of name: family, middle, surname is very popular in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese Communities (Billions of people). I always have trouble when there are two types of name order existing in the same Contacts (Phone Book).
3. There should be Search (or Find) function in Phone Log (Calls) like the existing function in Contacts. If SE can also integrate this function in other applications (Web), it will be great.
Phone, Contacts, Calender are very Important Basic Functions of a cellphone. If SE could do these, Asian market is yours.
Really great article, thanks! Definitely lots of good points I was thinking of, on and off. Cheers!
Really great article, thanks! Definitely lots of good points I was thinking of, on and off. Cheers!
I don think SE need to sack ppl, the people will leave there sooner or later…
SE cancelling phones b4 they announced type of situation has happen a lot of times, imagine all the R&D costs that went into it, all goes down the drain.
Also, i felt that their design style has been the same for a long time, though not as bad as motorola which keep repeating this Razr design style, it still gives a lot of people the feeling it all looks the same…
and with the hardware fairly the same with their copy and paste strategy, it will follow motorola failure as in its razr selling method. I like SE design but they better wake up…
I don think SE need to sack ppl, the people will leave there sooner or later…
SE cancelling phones b4 they announced type of situation has happen a lot of times, imagine all the R&D costs that went into it, all goes down the drain.
Also, i felt that their design style has been the same for a long time, though not as bad as motorola which keep repeating this Razr design style, it still gives a lot of people the feeling it all looks the same…
and with the hardware fairly the same with their copy and paste strategy, it will follow motorola failure as in its razr selling method. I like SE design but they better wake up…
Really interesting post Michell… I do agree that many of SE’s phones are copy and paste… but what about the other brands? arent they doing the same as well? Moto? all their phones look like its successful predecessor razor… samsung? LG? and more recently, the iPhone… how much different is the 1st gen of iPhone to the iPhone 3G? we’ve all read the critics… Essentially, it all boils down to branding.
The reason why SE has different variants in colours is because colours do make the phones more appealing to other markets aint it? survey around… I have…
Really interesting post Michell… I do agree that many of SE’s phones are copy and paste… but what about the other brands? arent they doing the same as well? Moto? all their phones look like its successful predecessor razor… samsung? LG? and more recently, the iPhone… how much different is the 1st gen of iPhone to the iPhone 3G? we’ve all read the critics… Essentially, it all boils down to branding.
The reason why SE has different variants in colours is because colours do make the phones more appealing to other markets aint it? survey around… I have…
I have a P1i, which is fantstic, hardware wize, but the software is lame, and easily remedied major defects (like lack of profiles and the ability to use the camera LEDs as a tourch) effectively make it useless to most of its target market, while the “symbian signed” lockdown makes it impossible to get/install applications.
The X1 is about to demonstrate
a) experienced users of business mobiles wont touch anything with the word Windows on it,
b) the reasons why Nokia are bigger than HTC.
If SE issued (chargeable) OS upgrades for P class phones *** which made them better ** users would buy them. And SW upgrades are more profitable than hardware ones, cos there is zero materials costs.
SE: Please dont dump the P1i/M800 keyboard, its one of your greatest strengths. We’d rather run an Andoid beta (or Mokophone fork) than a locked down UIQ.
I would pay for a p2i if it had GPS, 640×480, and a FASTER PROCESSOR. Failing that, my next phone will be a second hand E61.
I have a P1i, which is fantstic, hardware wize, but the software is lame, and easily remedied major defects (like lack of profiles and the ability to use the camera LEDs as a tourch) effectively make it useless to most of its target market, while the “symbian signed” lockdown makes it impossible to get/install applications.
The X1 is about to demonstrate
a) experienced users of business mobiles wont touch anything with the word Windows on it,
b) the reasons why Nokia are bigger than HTC.
If SE issued (chargeable) OS upgrades for P class phones *** which made them better ** users would buy them. And SW upgrades are more profitable than hardware ones, cos there is zero materials costs.
SE: Please dont dump the P1i/M800 keyboard, its one of your greatest strengths. We’d rather run an Andoid beta (or Mokophone fork) than a locked down UIQ.
I would pay for a p2i if it had GPS, 640×480, and a FASTER PROCESSOR. Failing that, my next phone will be a second hand E61.
Product isn’t the big issue here, it’s management. Seems some people are going to loose their jobs over there because of management. I guess Flint left at the right time. SE needs to live up to its corporate principles if it wants to remain competitive, or viable in the market for that matter.
Product isn’t the big issue here, it’s management. Seems some people are going to loose their jobs over there because of management. I guess Flint left at the right time. SE needs to live up to its corporate principles if it wants to remain competitive, or viable in the market for that matter.
This “Cope/Paste” strategy helped SE earn a lot of money last year.
I think SE are spending this money on series of renovation cellphones.
This “Cope/Paste” strategy helped SE earn a lot of money last year.
I think SE are spending this money on series of renovation cellphones.
i love to see their profits falling, i’m a k850i owner, enough said
i love to see their profits falling, i’m a k850i owner, enough said
I bought s500c this afternoon. After I back home, I played it happily. But I found one side of the shell is too loose. And they don’t think its a quality problem. I’m so disappointed. How can I do now?
I bought s500c this afternoon. After I back home, I played it happily. But I found one side of the shell is too loose. And they don’t think its a quality problem. I’m so disappointed. How can I do now?
[...] Sony Ericson were sensing the inevitable dawn of UIQ and despite the ink that was spilled by users begging them to get back on track, the demise kept getting near. Now UIQ is officially dead in blatant words or “UIQ [...]
[...] Sony Ericson were sensing the inevitable dawn of UIQ and despite the ink that was spilled by users begging them to get back on track, the demise kept getting near. Now UIQ is officially dead in blatant words or “UIQ [...]
and instead of manufacturing lots and lots and lots of useless and SE fones, i recommend why not just manufacture a fone with these features in it:
GPS, wifi, walkman,cybershot,touchscreen, video.
and maybe consumer and SE fanatics like me will love to turn heads into.
my fones are w66oi & g705. i gave my g700 to my girl friend. and she loves sketching in it.
and instead of manufacturing lots and lots and lots of useless and SE fones, i recommend why not just manufacture a fone with these features in it:
GPS, wifi, walkman,cybershot,touchscreen, video.
and maybe consumer and SE fanatics like me will love to turn heads into.
my fones are w66oi & g705. i gave my g700 to my girl friend. and she loves sketching in it.