AllThingsD » Sony Ericsson

Sony's High-End Xperia ZL Comes to U.S. at a Hefty $719

Ina Fried — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:46:04 +0000

Sony’s latest smartphone is coming to the U.S. with both an eye-popping screen and an eye-popping price.

Once again, the Japanese phone maker has found little carrier support, and is instead selling its device unlocked. That means that the Xperia ZL will sell for a whopping $719 ($40 more for the LTE version).

For that price, you get a device with some pretty nice specs, including a five-inch screen, a 13-megapixel camera, 1.5GHz quad-core chip, etc. Other features include Near Field Communication (NFC) and a battery-improving Stamina mode that turns off power-draining applications when the screen is dark.

And, of course, you aren’t tied to a contract.

The phone is set to be available for presale Monday on Sony’s online store, and will be coming soon to “select online retailers,” Sony said.

Sony also plans for its Xperia Tablet Z to hit the U.S. in May. On the tablet side, however, the company has the benefit that most devices are sold without a subsidy.

Globally, Sony is hoping that the Z series will help revive the company’s mobile business.

Sony bought out its former joint venture partner, Ericsson, and has now reintegrated the mobile business with other parts of its electronics business, but it has yet to see a hoped-for boost in business.

Sony Xperia Ion: Entertainment-Filled, but Running on Empty

Bonnie Cha — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:00:58 +0000

When you hear the name Sony, you probably think of TVs, laptops or game consoles — cellphones, not so much. Now, after a decade of making smartphones under the Sony Ericsson brand, most of which were only available to international markets, Sony is making its own phones. And it’s working with carriers to bring more models to the U.S., starting with the Sony Xperia Ion.

Available now from AT&T for $100 with a two-year contract, the Xperia Ion is not only the first smartphone to be released by Sony, it’s also the company’s first 4G smartphone for the U.S.

I’ve been testing the Android smartphone for the past two weeks, and it offers some great features, such as a rich multimedia experience and zippy data speeds. The affordable price is also a plus, but it comes with some tradeoffs, including an older version of the Android operating system. But the smartphone has bigger issues — namely, poor battery life and low call volume — so it’s hard to recommend the Xperia Ion, even as a budget pick.

[ See post to watch video ]

Though people use smartphones for much more than making calls these days, call quality is still an important feature. I tested the phone in San Francisco, and calls were clear without any background noise or voice distortion. Friends who were on calls with me also reported good audio quality, and a couple of people even said it sounded like I was using a landline.

Unfortunately, the Xperia Ion just didn’t offer enough volume on my end. Even in a quiet room, I had to crank the volume up to the highest level to hear my callers. Voices got drowned out when I had the TV on in the background, and continuing a call outside on a busy street was difficult. Trying to have a conversation over speakerphone in the same environment was nearly impossible.

On the positive side, I didn’t experience any dropped calls, and AT&T’s 4G LTE network provided some impressive data speeds. Here in San Francisco, I averaged download speeds of around 16 megabits per second and upload speeds of 6 Mbps, so I was able to pull up Web pages quickly and enjoy smooth playback of high-definition YouTube videos.

One thing to note, however, is that AT&T’s 4G network is currently only available in 41 markets. If you don’t live in a coverage area, the Xperia Ion will operate on the carrier’s 3G network, so in that case, expect slower data speeds.

That said, I wish the smartphone had an option to switch between 4G and 3G to help extend battery life. In my talk-time battery tests, the Xperia Ion’s battery delivered seven hours of continuous talk time on a single charge — short of Sony’s estimate of 10 hours. In everyday use, the smartphone struggled to last a full day.

I would start with a full battery around 8 am, and after checking my email and social networks, reading a couple of news articles on the Web, making soome quick calls and watching a short YouTube video, the battery was nearly dead by 3 pm. The battery life on 4G smartphones isn’t great, in general, but at least the HTC One X, another 4G smartphone from AT&T, offered about two more hours of battery life in the same scenario. What’s more, the Xperia Ion doesn’t have a user-replaceable battery, so you can’t even swap in a fresh battery if you aren’t near an outlet.

The Xperia Ion runs an older version of Android OS called Gingerbread, and not the latest Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s disappointing that Sony used this for its first smartphone in the U.S., but the company said it will be upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich. No specific time frame was given.

In the meantime, the company has integrated some of Ice Cream Sandwich’s features into its own user interface. For example, you can take a screenshot by holding down the power button, and create folders by dragging and dropping icons. But I did miss the dedicated task-switcher button in Ice Cream Sandwich that easily lets you move between apps.

One area where the Xperia Ion shines is multimedia. The smartphone offers access to Sony’s Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited services, where you can stream unlimited music for $10 a month, or rent or buy TV shows and movies. Prices start at $1.99 to rent a show, and go up to $14.99 to purchase a movie.

Watching videos on the handset’s 4.6-inch HD display is a treat. With a 1,280 x 720 pixel resolution, images and text looked sharp, but the screen’s larger size makes for a bigger device. The Xperia Ion is bigger than the iPhone at 5.24 inches tall by 2.7 inches wide and 0.46-inch thick.

The smartphone has an HDMI port, so you can connect it to your HDTV to view pictures and videos stored on your handset. I connected it to my Samsung TV, and the Xperia Ion automatically launched an app that gave me access to all my media, YouTube and the browser. If you have a Sony TV, you can also use your remote to navigate through the app’s menus. This features also works on non-Sony TVs, as long as your remote has CEC (consumer electronics control) capabilities. I got a message saying my Samsung TV was compatible, but I wasn’t able to get any of my remotes to work with it.

Finally, the Xperia Ion packs a 12-megapixel camera with some fun built-in functions, like panorama shooting mode. Picture quality was good, but I didn’t find it to be any better than the Nokia Lumia 900 or the One X, both of which have eight-megapixel cameras. In fact, when taking a picture of the sunset, the One X produced a brighter picture, with more details and richer color.

The Xperia Ion’s multimedia features, 4G connectivity and affordable price are bright spots in Sony’s first bid into the smartphone market, but they don’t make up for the battery and call-volume issues. Customers looking for an affordable 4G phone from AT&T should look at the Nokia Lumia 900 for a comparable multimedia experience, or the Samsung Galaxy S Skyrocket II, which has a user-replaceable battery. Both are $100 with a two-year service agreement.

Sony to Streamline Product Lines, Shift to Common Pricing in the U.S.

Ina Fried — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:33:52 +0000

Aiming to improve both its brand and sales, Sony is launching a new pricing program that will see many of its electronics priced the same, regardless of the store selling the products.

Starting April 1, Sony will move many of its products across categories into what is known as unilateral pricing or minimum advertised pricing, in which retailers agree to charge no less than a set price for a product. The company plans to move 140 product lines to such pricing.

“I think our brand is well-loved and well-revered, and still synonymous with premium quality,” Phil Molyneux said in a roundtable with reporters on Tuesday. “If we are not communicating effectively what does the product allow the consumer to enjoy … then that may have a drag on the brand.”

The company also plans to shrink the number of products. In TVs, for example, it will shift from 40 models last year in the U.S. to 22 this year. Molyneux said the company’s goal is profitable growth, but declined to say whether the U.S. business is making money today, or to identify specific targets.

It’s been a time of big change for Sony, which recently replaced its CEO and has also taken full ownership of its cellphone unit, previously run as a joint venture with Sweden’s Ericsson.

As first reported by AllThingsD last month, Sony has been cutting jobs in its U.S. operations.

On Tuesday, Molyneux said the company has now reduced its workforce by more than 300 positions in its U.S. operations, through layoffs and reducing open positions. Part of that was an effort to reduce the number of layers in the company, he said.

“If we have too many layers, our ability to act with speed, to be agile and to communicate effectively inside the community was hindered,” he said.

Molyneux acknowledged that one area that continues to need work is its product naming, which often consists of a jumble of numbers and letters.

“We’ve got some work to do on tidying up our naming conventions on products,” he said.

Another piece of Sony’s new strategy is to work more closely with retailers. Under a new program, stores will earn the maximum profit margins only when they hit a set of predefined criteria.

The company is also working to promote itself in new ways, Molyneux said, such as through social media.

Updated, 4:45 pm PT, to add more details on the strategy and job cuts.

Sony Insists It's Not Just Playing Around When It Comes to Phones

Ina Fried — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:16:09 +0000

Sony has successfully managed to reacquire its phone business.

Now for the hard part: Reacquiring the customers.

It’s been 10 days since Sony officially took over the business once run as a joint venture with Sweden’s Ericsson, so it’s a little early to judge. But it is fair to say that Sony has a tough road ahead.

“We’re not disappointed with our market share,” Sony Mobile marketing chief Steve Walker said in an interview, noting that the company is second or third among Android players in many countries. “At the same time, what we see is, to really win consumers’ hearts, you can’t just offer smartphones.”

Sony is touting its strengths in gaming, entertainment and imaging, but the company focused on similar areas when it was Sony Ericsson, with only mixed results.

Walker said that there were some limits to how much of the company’s know-how and intellectual property could be shared with the joint venture, and he promised bigger and better collaborations ahead.

“There were still some limitations,” he said. “All of those barriers are gone.”

Walker said the company is not closed to using other operating systems, but for the time being, he believes that Android is still its best bet. Since many of the phones offer similar specifications, Walker said one of the main things it needs to do is reestablish Sony as a strong brand in phones.

“A smartphone purchase choice is as much about brand affinity as [an] individual product,” Walker said.

Sony has thus far introduced four phones under its own brand, including the Xperia U and P models announced in Barcelona on Sunday.

In the U.S. market, where Sony has struggled to win support from carriers, Sony is focusing on the LTE-equipped Xperia Ion for AT&T.

“There are other things we are doing with U.S. carriers,” he said, adding that he “can’t be too specific.”

The company also plans to bring out its other devices in July, albeit in an unsubsidized fashion.

Walker said the company knows it needs a bigger presence in North America.

“It’s 100 percent core to our strategy,” he said. “We recognize it is the biggest smartphone market. You can’t consider yourself to be a successful smartphone player without a sustainable presence in the U.S.”

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Sony Aims to Remake Name for Itself in Phones

Ina Fried — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18:08:44 +0000

Sony on Sunday tried to make the case that it has a place in the crowded market for Android phones.

The announcement event is the first major product introduction for Sony since it took full control of the cellphone business that it had run jointly with Sweden’s Ericsson. That deal officially closed 10 days ago.

Appearing at the event, newly minted Sony CEO Kaz Hirai said that revitalizing the mobile business is a key part of his effort to turn around the company.

“We will revitalize our product portfolio,” Hirai said, adding that the company is hard at work to make its mobile products and user interface compelling, in addition to leveraging the company’s strengths in digital imaging and games.

Many of the company’s new phones will be able to play PlayStation games, following in the footsteps of the initial Xperia Play device, according to Sony Mobile Communications CEO Bert Nordberg.

Nordberg announced two new phones, the unibody aluminum Xperia P and the compact Xperia U. The two devices join the Xperia S, which has just started shipping. The Xperia P is also the first phone with a new WhiteMagic display technology, designed for better viewing in direct sunlight.

The Xperia P also features near field communications technology. Both the Xperia P and Xperia U will start shipping next quarter, Sony said.

The company also plans to bring its first Sony-branded phone, the Xperia Ion, to markets beyond the U.S.; Sony had already announced the device for AT&T at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Sony promised it will significantly up its marketing budget this year, including its largest ad campaign in some time.

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Consolidating Smartphone Market Putting Pressure on Second-Tier Makers

Ina Fried — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:00:14 +0000

A lot of attention is being paid to the battle between Apple and Samsung for bragging rights atop the smartphone market. The two are neck and neck when it comes to the U.S. smartphone market.

But even more interesting, perhaps, is what is happening to the next tier of players. Both HTC and Motorola, for example, have recently issued downbeat earnings and forecasts.

Not so long ago, it appeared that the rising tide would lift all smartphone boats. HTC, in particular, was doubling sales year over year, and its growth seemed unstoppable.

But now it appears that the wave is thrashing as many as it is helping. HTC has hit a wall; plenty of other Android players, including Sony and Motorola, are struggling to keep pace with the leaders.

Both Motorola and HTC have said their strategy this year will be about putting more effort behind fewer devices. It remains to be seen what the plan is for Sony, which is in the process of taking over its cellphone joint venture with Ericsson.

As for the top of the heap, both Apple and Samsung appear to be flourishing. For the year, Samsung edged Apple in smartphone shipments, while Apple was narrowly ahead of Samsung in the fourth quarter.

Sony Ericsson Reports Brutal Fourth Quarter as It Prepares for Life as Sony Unit

Ina Fried — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:56:46 +0000

Sony Ericsson, which is in the process of being wholly acquired by its Japanese co-owner, reported a particularly bad quarter on Thursday.

The cellphone maker reported a huge quarterly loss, and a drop in the number of phones sold from a year earlier — nine million units, down from 11.2 million shipments in the prior year’s fourth quarter.

For the three months ended Dec. 31, the company lost 207 million euros on revenue of 1.29 billion euros. That compares to a profit of eight million euros on sales of 1.53 million euros in the year-ago quarter. The just-reported quarter’s results included 93 million euros in restructuring charges.

“Our fourth quarter results reflected intense competition, unfavorable macroeconomic conditions and the effects of a natural disaster in Thailand this quarter,” CEO Bert Nordberg said in a statement. “We are aligning our business to drive profitability and to meet customer needs. In spite of these challenges, throughout 2011 we’ve shifted our business from feature phones to smartphones, and our Android-based smartphone sales in the quarter increased by 65% year-on-year.”

The division will soon be Sony’s to deal with, as the cellphone maker expects to complete its transition to full ownership this month or next, with Sony paying Ericsson 1.05 billion euros.

Sony Ericsson Asks Game Maker The9 to Manage Its App Store in China

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:58:26 +0000

The9, which is known for helping to bring games from the U.S. to China, is announcing a partnership with Sony Ericsson to operate its mobile app store there.

The Chinese company is perhaps originally known for bringing World of Warcraft to China through a prior partnership with Activision. More recently, it invested in U.S.-based OpenFeint, which was acquired by Japan’s Gree last year. It continues to work with OpenFeint on a version of the social gaming platform for China.

But the deal with Sony Ericsson in China will be a first for The9, which will be the exclusive operator of its PlayNow app store. It will provide technical and operational support, including testing, releasing and promotion of all apps.

The partnership is not unheard of; Sony Ericsson has leaned on other providers in the U.S., such as GetJar, to manage its app store here.

The PlayNow store in China will include games, as well as other apps and content, such as ringtones. It will work on Xperia phones that operate Android and Java.

Feature phones continue to be the dominant phone factor in China, but increasingly smartphones are being adopted, said Chris Shen, general manager of The9’s Mobile Business Unit, in an interview.

He said that since games are the company’s strength, it will be looking to partner with other content providers to integrate other products into the PlayNow experience. So far, 50 games have already been added to the store.

Shen said it will receive a cut of the revenues from sales of games, advertising and microtransactions. The9 must also share the revenue with third-party developers.

The company, which trades on the Nasdaq, has struggled to regain revenues that were lost after its World of Warcraft contract was not renewed in 2009.

In the second quarter of 2011, it reported a loss of $1.9 million on revenues of $3.9 million. The company’s stock fell 2 cents today, to trade at $6.80 a share.

Interview: AT&T's De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile

Ina Fried — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:08:11 +0000

AT&T had a busy year in 2011. It announced — and then dropped — plans to buy T-Mobile USA. It launched its first LTE service and saw increased iPhone competition from Verizon and Sprint.

The company kicked off 2012 by announcing six new Android devices, all running on LTE, as well as new LTE-capable Windows phones from HTC and Nokia.

Moments after he left the stage, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega sat down with AllThingsD to talk about a wide range of issues facing his company, various mobile device makers and the industry as a whole.

Here’s an edited look at what he had to say.

On the failure of the T-Mobile deal and where AT&T goes from here:

We’re very pleased that the FCC approved our purchase of the Qualcomm spectrum. We’ll be working to put that into play as quickly as possible. And we are always going to be on the lookout for new spectrum that comes on the market. We hope that the FCC also makes more spectrum available.

We’ve put that behind us and we are moving on to have a great 2012.

On BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, which was notably missing from AT&T’s announcement on Monday:

BlackBerry has got some interesting things coming up. I’m encouraged by some of the things that I understand they are bringing to market.

BlackBerry has been a great partner and, you know, people love their devices. They love the keyboards. I think they are working on all of the things customers want. I am very pleased with, at least, the things that are on their roadmap. As soon as they can get them I think they are going to have a lot of customers knocking on their door.

On Motorola, which was also absent from AT&T’s Vegas announcements:

They are going to have some exciting stuff. They are just not ready to announce them with us. It’s really early in the year.

On Sony’s future in the smartphone market:

As you know, they bought out the Ericsson interest. I think they are going to have a more focused approach and put what I call more “Sony-ness” into their smartphones. We’ve met with their team and I am very encouraged.

On whether AT&T will offer fewer tablets this year after so many iPad rivals failed to make a dent in the market:

I think you are going to see us find models that have a particular differentiated approach to the tablet market. Obviously Apple sets the bar with the iPad, so Pantech is now looking at a very low-end device, still a great device, but I think that kind of distinction is what customers want.

On why the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note might stand a chance:

That’s the first hybrid device that tries to fill in a niche between a tablet and a smartphone. I’ve been using that device and it is, surprisingly, an amazing device. I didn’t understand whether we were going to be able to make that transition work, but you ought to try it. I think you will get hooked on it.

I think it is for somebody that wants to make it their primary device and doesn’t want to carry around a tablet as well. It’s surprisingly thin. It fits in your pocket.

That’s an iconic device. It’s exclusive to us. We’re going to put a lot of marketing effort behind it.

On whether we will see LTE phones that work across multiple carriers even though the first devices don’t support that.

The first ones are done that way because of technology limitations. How many antennas can you squeeze into one of those things? It’s the first generation. As the technology matures, you will incorporate more bands into the devices. I think you will have as many bands as customers are going to want. It’s not inexpensive, but I think technology will allow us to do that at a reasonable price.

Trio Uses Handful of Android Phones to Offer a 360-Degree Bike Ride

Ina Fried — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:21:47 +0000

While panorama apps are now common, one team had a different idea on how smartphones might be able to fully capture a compelling scene.

Rather than use one phone to capture video or an immersive still picture, Joergen Geerds, Dan Finkler and Mark Sevenoff used six Sony Ericsson Xperia neo phones in a custom mount to record a ride down Slickrock Trail in Utah’s Moab Desert.

The group used a 3D printer to create the mount that held the six phones and recorded video on each phone, then stitched it all together. The result is an interactive video, playable on the Web, that allows viewers to replay the ride from all different angles, shifting smoothly from one position to another as the video plays.

The Moab outing is the centerpiece of an Xperia Studio project sponsored by Sony Ericsson that aims to show the creative possibilities of its products.

For Geerds, the panorama format was familiar as his main business is shooting large nighttime cityscapes. But, video was news.

“With the video I figured I wanted to go in a different direction, and bring more humanity in it,” Geerds said in an interview. That’s when Geerds got connected with Finkler, a New York-based developer, who created the bluetooth remote control software and Sevenoff, who did the actual bike riding.

One of the challenges with shooting video was that Geerds couldn’t find any commercial software for stitching together the panoramic videos. Instead, Geerds relied on the software he uses for processing stills. That meant breaking each video into a collection of hundreds of thousands of jpeg images.

“It certainly was the most complex project I’ve ever worked on,” Geerds said.

The hardest part, Geerds said, was learning to use the software to do the 3D printing that allowed the fabrication of the custom rigging used to mount the cameras on the bike.

The shoot itself was done the week of Sept. 19. Geerds said most things went relatively smoothly, although he found out later that one of the six cameras did get a bit wobbly on the ride down.

One surprise was that the phones’ battery life held up pretty well.

“We had tons of replacement batteries with us,” Geerds said, but they ended up not needing most of them, getting two to three hours of battery life from each camera phone. A bigger issue, he said, was running out of space on SD cards.

Another key was Finkler’s remote control software, which allowed the video recording to be stopped and re-started remotely using a seventh smartphone.

“We are trying to put more features into the software, and will probably release it on github once it’s more polished,” Geerds said.

Sony to Buy Out Ericsson in Cellphone Joint Venture

Ina Fried — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:36:23 +0000

Well, I’ll say this — Kazuo Hirai knows how to play poker.

He flatly refused to tip his hand at last week’s AsiaD conference. But on Thursday, Sony announced that it is indeed buying out Ericsson in the two companies’ Sony Ericsson joint venture.

Under the terms of the deal, Sony will pay Ericsson 1.05 billion euros; will enter a broad patent cross-licensing deal, giving all of Sony’s products license to Ericsson’s patents; and will take ownership of five patent families directly related to wireless handsets.

Although Hirai refused last week to say whether Sony would buy out the joint venture, he did say it was essential for the company to have control and influence over the unit’s products. And what better way to get control and influence than by taking full ownership?

In their statement announcing the deal, the two companies noted that a lot has changed since the venture was set up 10 years ago, and that, given the shift to smartphones, there is less overlap than there once was with the rest of Ericsson’s business.

Sony also said the move will help it offer more integrated products.

“We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment,” Sony CEO Howard Stringer said in a statement.

Regardless of who owns it, the handset business has its work cut out for it, having dropped in status to a relatively minor player in the global smartphone business, despite having some nice Android-based hardware.

Sony Nears Deal to Buy Out Ericsson From Joint Venture

Daisuke Wakabayashi — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:00:49 +0000

In a sign of the central role smartphones will play in its future consumer-electronics strategy, Sony Corp. is nearing a deal to buy out Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson’s stake in their mobile phone joint venture, according to people familiar with the matter.

By wresting full control of Sony Ericsson, a 50-50 joint venture created in 2001 that is the world’s sixth-largest cellphone manufacturer, Sony aims to integrate the smartphone business with that of its tablets, hand-held game machines, and personal computers to save on costs and better synchronize development of mobile devices, the people said.

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Sony Ericsson's Strategy: Get Smart

Sven Grundberg — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:59:02 +0000

Ten years ago, Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. and Swedish mobile-network vendor Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson put their mobile-phone units into a joint venture, creating Sony Ericsson in an effort to grab a profitable share of the booming global handset market.

It has been a bumpy ride. While the Swedish-Japanese hybrid enjoyed initial successes with its line of Walkman-branded music handsets and Cybershot camera phones, it has struggled to build major market share around the world, and, like rivals such as Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Nokia Corp., has recently struggled to compete with Apple Inc. in the fast-growing smartphone market.

Sony Ericsson underwent a management shake-up two years ago, appointing Bert Nordberg, who previously headed Ericsson’s operations in Silicon Valley, as the company’s chief executive, replacing Sony’s Hediki “Dick” Komiyama. Mr. Nordberg made some radical decisions: He dropped the Symbian operating system, introduced a smartphone strategy using Google Inc.’s Android platform, and gave up Sony Ericsson’s presence in the low-end market.

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U.S. Steps Up Probe of Nortel Patent Deal

Thomas Catan — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 00:20:15 +0000

The US Department of Justice is intensifying an investigation into whether tech giants including Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion could use a recently acquired trove of patents to unfairly hobble competing smartphones using Google’s Android software, according to people familiar with the matter.

A consortium of six companies last month paid $4.5 billion to acquire a portfolio of 6,000 patents auctioned by the bankrupt Canadian telecom equipment maker Nortel Networks, thwarting Google’s interest. The final amount, five times Google’s original $900 million “stalking horse” bid, stunned observers and raised concerns about how the consortium intended to use them.

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Annual Smartphone Sales Could Reach One Billion by 2016

Ina Fried — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:00:22 +0000

Although the smartphone market continues to grow, the division between market winners and losers is also growing.

A new study from IMS Research predicts that smartphone sales this year will total 420 million units, making up 28 percent of the total handset market. With cheaper models on the way, smartphone sales could top one billion units a year, or one out of every two phones sold.

“But despite the higher margins for smartphones, and the seemingly insatiable consumer appetite for converged devices, it is clear that not all [handset makers] are equally positioned to capitalize on this market trend,” IMS analyst Josh Builta said in a statement. “For instance, LG, despite being the third largest [manufacturer] in the world, has offered a fairly limited smartphone portfolio in recent years, a factor that resulted in the company reaching less than three percent share of the total smartphone market in 2010.”

Nokia is another company not benefiting from the dramatic growth in smartphone sales, with second-quarter smartphone sales of 16.7 million units, down more than a third from the same quarter a year ago.

“Clearly one of the key dynamics of the mobile handset competitive environment in recent years has been the inability of many traditional market leaders to recognize and adjust to the growing smartphone tier,” Builta said. “The reasons for these failures vary and include everything from poorly designed and manufactured devices, unsatisfactory user interfaces, and portfolios that don’t offer products with a differentiating feature. These lapses have created opportunities for newer entrants to the market, which they have aggressively pursued.”

The beneficiaries — companies such as Apple, Samsung and HTC — are no surprise.

And while LG and Nokia are trying to bolster their position, they face steep competition in the short term from the current leaders, Builta said.

“Apple, they are going to get another boost in momentum here when they release the iPhone 5,” Builta said in a phone interview, adding that HTC and Samsung are also building on their strong positions. Android, Builta said, should be the dominant operating system through 2016, thanks to its widespread adoption by multiple phone makers.

Microsoft-Apple Word War Spreads to Europe

John Paczkowski — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:21:33 +0000

Microsoft has established a new beachhead in its semantic set-to with Apple and rallied some new allies to its fight against genericide. On Thursday it challenged Apple’s rights to the trademarks “App Store” and “Appstore” in the European market, filing a formal application for declaration of invalidity in the EU’s Community Trade Mark office. That joins similar paperwork from HTC, Nokia and Sony Ericsson, all of whom argue that “app store” is too generic a term for anyone to trademark.

“Microsoft and other leading technology companies are seeking to invalidate Apple’s trademark registration for APP STORE and APPSTORE because we believe that they should not have been granted because they both lack distinctiveness,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. “The undisputed facts establish that ‘app store’ means exactly what it says, a store offering apps, and is generic for the services that the registrations cover.”

This is, of course, the same argument Microsoft (and Amazon, for that matter) have been making in the States. That said, as I’ve noted here before, Apple was first to request a trademark on App Store and, as this Google Trend line shows, the phrase didn’t enter the vernacular until 2008, right around the time Apple began popularizing it.

PREVIOUSLY:

Amazon to Apple: “App Store” is Generic; Just Ask Your CEO

How About We Call It APP Store, as in “Amazon Portable Program Store”

Like “Office” and “Word” Aren’t Generic…

Smartphone Makers Think Small (and Big) in Attempt to Stand Out from the Pack

Ina Fried — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:00:31 +0000

For most of the last year, the bulk of the phones trying to challenge the iPhone have looked a whole lot like the Apple smartphone.

Sure, some have had a physical keyboard and a few have featured a larger screen, but by and large, they have generally tried subtle differences in appearance rather than a radical departure from the sleek slab look popularized by the iPhone.

That’s starting to shift some, especially as smartphone makers now need to stand out not only versus Apple but also as compared to the increasingly crowded field of Android phones.

The result is that the market is starting to see a greater variety of devices–particularly as it comes to size. Two devices announced last week by AT&T highlight this trend–the finger-stretching 4.5-inch Samsung Infuse 4G and the tiny HP Veer 4G.

With a screen that measures just 2.6 inches, the Veer is impossibly cute, but also packs a slide-out keyboard, hotspot capability and other features typically found on larger-size smartphones. At the other end, the Infuse is pushing the size limit of what can be thought of as a phone. The Infuse doesn’t look that different from Android devices with slightly smaller screens, but all that real estate comes in handy when viewing Web content and videos, among other uses.

The only larger device in recent memory was the five-inch Dell Streak which Dell first demoed at last year’s D8 Conference. That device fell into no man’s land–too big to be a phone, too small to be a tablet, and ultimately not groundbreaking enough to win many converts.

The latest crop of big and small devices are hoping to find sizeable niches within the burgeonging smartphone market. The Veer isn’t the only competitor in the small-but-mighty category. Sony Ericsson last week announced plans for a second generation of its mini line of Xperia Android phones. The devices pack the latest in Android features into a 3-inch screen device.

What remains to be seen is just how much room there is at the edge of the market. And while Sony Ericsson is using its mini line as a way to distinguish itself in a crowded Android field, HP is in the position of needing badly to reassert itself following the Palm acquisition. It’s interesting that the company is leading with the Veer rather than the more mainstream Pre 3 device that was unveiled in February, at the same time as the Veer.

Sony Jumps on the Honeycomb Bandwagon, Plans Two Android Tablets for Fall

Ina Fried — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:14:05 +0000

Sony became the latest computer maker to toss its hat into the Android tablet ring, announcing plans for two models during a press conference in Japan.

The Japanese computer maker announced plans for two Honeycomb tablets–the 9.4-inch S1 and the S2, with its dual 5.5-inch screens. Sony said the tablets will be available globally starting this fall.

With the move, Sony will join a crowded field that includes Motorola, which led the Honeycomb parade with its Xoom, along with LG, HTC, Samsung, Toshiba and Acer, to name just some of those with announced plans. Meanwhile, Apple still dominates the field with the iPad, while HP and Research In Motion hope to tackle the tablet market with homegrown operating systems.

Both Sony models have built-in Wi-Fi as well as cellular options. In addition to the standard Web-browsing and other Android features, Sony is touting its tablets’ abilities to act as universal remote controls and connect to video and gaming services from the company.

The dual screens on the S2 allow users to combine both displays or use one for content and another for either controls or a virtual keyboard.

The company had been widely expected to cast its tablet fortunes with Android, following in the footsteps of its Sony Ericsson cellphone joint venture, which has bet on the Google operating system to power its smartphones.

Sony Ericsson Says Quake Aftermath Will Continue to Cloud Component Picture

Ina Fried — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:11:34 +0000

Sony Ericsson executives said Tuesday that they expect the lingering effects of the March 11 Japan earthquake to affect the company for the next several quarters, though they said the impact is hard to quantify.

Because it came late in the last quarter, the company said, the business impact on that period’s financial results was minimal.

“The impact on Q2 and beyond remains uncertain,” Bill Glasier, the company’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call following the company’s earnings report.

Among the components most affected by the quake were camera modules, batteries and displays, Sony Ericsson said. The company said it is working with suppliers to move to areas not impacted by the quake and, where necessary, to add secondary component suppliers.

Sony Ericsson has been working to boost its share of the global phone market by focusing on Android-based smartphones, but said that sales growth could be hampered by the quake.

The company has about 11 percent of the total Android market globally, but has a very small share in North America–a key smartphone market. Further growth depends on improving its fortunes here, CEO Bert Nordberg reiterated on the conference call. At the same time, Nordberg said that rebuilding the U.S. position must be done step by step with committed carriers as opposed to building a bunch of devices and hoping they will sell.

Verizon is due to launch the company’s Xperia Play–the so-called PlayStation Phone–sometime this spring. Sony Ericsson didn’t give any further details on the timing.

Sony Ericsson Sales Drop, But Margins Rise Amid Continued Shift to Android; Quake Impact Also Felt

Ina Fried — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 06:47:41 +0000

Sony Ericsson said that its quarterly earnings benefited from the company’s stronger lineup of Android products but that the company’s business has taken a hit from the quake that struck Japan last month. Sales also suffered a blow as the company continued its shift away from the feature phone market.

“Towards the end of the quarter we introduced the highly anticipated Xperia arc and Xperia Play, which have been well received by both operators and consumers around the world,” CEO Bert Nordberg said in a statement. “However, the Japan earthquake made it a challenging quarter operationally and we are experiencing some disruptions to our supply chain. We will continue to evaluate the situation.”

Investors have been eyeing the report not just to size up the cell phone industry, but also to get a sense of the impact on the electronics industry from the devastating earthquake that struck Japan last month.

Sales for the quarter ended March 31 were down compared to both the prior quarter and year-ago figures. Sony Ericsson said sales totaled 1.145 billion Euros ($1.63 billion), off 19 percent from a year ago and 25 percent from the prior quarter. Profit margins did grow, reaching 33 percent in the quarter, up 2 percentage points from a year ago and 3 percentage points from the prior quarter.

Sony Ericsson has been shipping fewer phones, but it is aiming to improve its bottom line by shifting to Android over a prior lineup that included far more lower-end feature phones. The company shipped 8.1 million phones in the quarter, down 28 percent from the prior quarter and 23 percent from the same quarter a year ago. The average selling price per unit, however, rose about 5 percent from a year earlier and 4 percent from the prior quarter, to 141 Euros ($200).

The company estimates it has about 5 percent of the global phone market, as measured by units, and about 3 percent when measured by dollar value.

Japan Quake Roundup: Some Companies More Disrupted Than Others

Arik Hesseldahl — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:09:07 +0000

The disruptive effects of the ongoing earthquake plus tsunami plus nuclear near-meltdown in Japan are still being assessed nearly a week after the initial events. And while there’s still a lot that remains unclear about the longer-term effects for the tech sector, the picture is clearing up at least a little. Here’s a roundup:

Sony Ericsson

Wireless handset maker Sony-Ericsson just issued a statement on the extent of disruptions it expects.

“Although the full impact of the current situation on our business will take additional time to assess, Sony Ericsson anticipates disruption to its supply chain operations,” the company said in a statement. “As part of our business continuity plan, we are in contact with all our key suppliers in the region and we are identifying the possible relocation of certain component manufacturing, and looking at secondary sources of supply.”

Intel and Qualcomm

Some analysts had speculated that plant shutdowns by Mitsubishi Gas would slow chip production by cutting supplies of certain chemicals used in the chip making process. Both Intel and Qualcomm told Bloomberg News that they’re careful to avoid situations where important supplies come from only one source.

Texas Instruments

Wireless chipmaker Texas Instruments said on Monday that a plant in Miho, about 40 miles northeast of Tokyo, had suffered “substantial damage” and that it may be July before the plant is back up to full production. The plant is responsible for about 10 percent of TI’s overall production, and about a third of its capacity is devoted to its Digital Light Processor, and the rest to analog components. Shares of Diodes, Inc., a TI rival, jumped when analyst John Vinh of Collins Stewart said the company stood to benefit from TI’s troubles.

Oracle

Analyst Derrick Wood of Susquehanna Financial said in a note to clients that fears about Oracle’s exposure to the Japanese market, which has driven the shares down in recent days, are probably overblown. Even though Japan accounts for about five percent of Oracle’s revenue, he said, fears are “likely overdone.” Most of Oracle’s revenue from Japan comes from recurring maintenance fees, so the risk of a serious hit to sales is minimal.

Raw Materials

The Wall Street Journal notes that Japan supplies about 90 percent of the world’s bismaleimide triazine, an important material used in making printed circuit boards for wireless phones. Japan also supplies much of the world’s silicon wafers that are used to make chips.

(Map via Wikimedia Commons)

Japan Quake Rattles Chip Industry

Don Clark — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:51:35 +0000

Japan’s massive earthquake affected operations at dozens of semiconductor factories, raising fears of shortages or price increases for a number of widely used components—particularly the chips known as flash memory that store data in hit products like smartphones and tablet PCs.

The quake struck hundreds of miles from many key chip plants, including most of the factories that account for the bulk of Japan’s flash-memory production. Most such factories are designed to withstand big quakes, and analysts expect little damage to structures or the costly machines that fabricate chips on silicon wafers.

But some manufacturers are likely to be affected by other issues, particularly disruptions in transportation of finished goods to airports or ports as well as the movement of employees and supplies to production plants. In addition, some of the biggest makers of consumer-electronics products that use chips are based in Japan, potentially affecting demand for chips.

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Sony Ericsson Woos Developers to PlayStation Phone, But Fails to Tap Into Existing PSP Titles

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 09:23:48 +0000

Recognizing that a wide variety of games will be key to its success, Sony Ericsson held a press conference at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco yesterday to drum up developer support for the upcoming launch of the Xperia Play, its first PlayStation-certified smartphone.

As part of its efforts, the handset-maker announced partnerships with Unity and Havok, two companies that offer tools to help developers build games for various platforms, including consoles, PCs and mobile.

The event represented the Xperia Play’s U.S. debut after it was officially unveiled last month at Mobile World Congress.

While the new tools will make it easier to move over an existing game to the device, what’s missing is a plan to leverage the thousands of games already built for the PlayStation Portable.

In theory, PSP games could easily be adapted for the Experia Play because of the commonalities of the two devices, ranging from the screen size to the similar set of controls.

When asked why there wasn’t a simple way to port the games, Peter Farmer, Sony Ericsson’s head of marketing in North America, told us: “That’s Sony’s business.”

Too true. While Sony Ericsson is a joint venture between Sony and Ericsson, the PSP is owned exclusively by Sony.

He added that since the device is running on Google’s Android, the spirit is to be open to the whole developer community, including those that are already participating in the Android Market. Because of that, he sees more casual games coming to the platform than you typically see on the PSP, which focuses more traditional console gaming experiences.

That’s not to say that a PlayStation Portable game won’t be separately built for the Xperia Play.

At launch, Sony Ericsson expects to have 50 titles available, and says a few games will be pre-installed games, including Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior by Digital Legends, Asphalt 6 by Gameloft, Star Battalion by Gameloft and The Sims 3 by Electronic Arts. Farmer said games will cost about $5 to $10 apiece, which is average for the mobile industry.

In addition, to help with the phone’s marketing efforts ahead of the spring launch on Verizon Wireless, it also announced a year-long sponsorship to become the official mobile handset of the Major League Gaming, a professional video game league.

The MLG has a dedicated gaming audience of 8 million people, who participate in online competitions, as well as six tournaments around the country, where players will get hands-on experience with the devices. In addition, Sony Ericsson will also sponsor a new video segment on MLG.tv highlighting popular apps and games.

Sony Ericsson Open to China Gaming Partnerships

Owen Fletcher — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 12:00:26 +0000

Mobile handset maker Sony Ericsson is open to partnerships such as joint ventures in China’s gaming industry and plans to sell its new cellphone-and-videogame device, Xperia Play, in the country, Chief Executive Bert Nordberg said Tuesday.

Mr. Nordberg, who was speaking in an interview, declined to give a timeline for the device’s launch in China but said the company will need at least three months to make preparations, such as expanding the games available from Chinese developers.

Sony Ericsson, a 50-50 joint venture between Sony Corp. of Japan and Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson of Sweden, has struggled in recent years with losses and falling market share in the competitive smartphone space. It is focusing on higher-end devices running Google Inc.’s Android operating system, such as the Xperia Play, in a bid to improve its margins and raise its share of global market revenue. The company unveiled Xperia Play at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona last month.

Xperia Play, a crossover of the popular PlayStation Portable gaming console and a cellphone, is the first attempt in years by a major manufacturer to combine cellphone and full gaming capabilities in the same product.

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Sony Ericsson Aims to Play Its Way Back Into Android Smartphone Lead

Ina Fried — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:35:45 +0000

Sony Ericsson is counting on its new Xperia Play phone to be more than just a novelty.

The cellphone maker is hoping that its PlayStation phone, combined with several other new smartphones, will help lift the company to the top of the Android race as opposed to being just one of the pack.

In an interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Sony Ericsson CTO Jan Uddenfeldt told Mobilized that the company intends to capitalize on Sony technologies beyond gaming, particularly in the areas of screens and cameras.

“We think we have a really competitive edge,” said Uddenfeldt. The Xperia Arc, for example, uses the Bravia Engine that comes from Sony’s television heritage. “We will introduce 3-D technology and that will come from Sony, of course.

Uddenfeldt said that the company is now leading on Android as well, being the first company outside of Google itself to release a Gingerbread-based phone, with its Arc that was announced at CES. At Mobile World Congress, it announced the Xperia Play and two other phones.

“From being a little bit of a laggard when it comes to Android releases, we are now the leader,” he said. “We intend to really stay that way. Our intention is to be the number one player in this Android world.”

First and foremost, Uddenfeldt said the company has to be a leader when it comes to using both the latest version of Android and the newest chips and other hardware. “It is a technology race, so it is very important to be on the latest technology,” he said.

With Xperia Play, Uddenfeldt said, the company has something that takes advantage of the latest and greatest version of Android but also does something unique.

“We don’t see anyone else doing this in the near future,” he said. In addition to being PlayStation certified, it will also work with a lot of Android games, including many customized just for the Play.

“Most of the games that we will launch are actually non-Sony-based games, Android games,” he said, referring to deals with Gameloft and EA Sports to create Xperia Play-optimized titles. “There’s going to be like 50 games when we launch the product in March or April.”

Though most Americans wouldn’t know it, Sony Ericsson is a top-three global player in Android phones, with about 20 percent market share, he said. Until recently, Uddenfeldt said, the company would tend to introduce phones first in Europe and Asia, bringing them to the U.S. several months later–and that, he said, “was absolutely not the right strategy.”

“The U.S. is now the leading market,” he said. “The U.S. is the country where the most advanced products are being launched first. That was not the case two or three years ago.”

Sony Ericsson is realizing this and is changing, he said, noting that Verizon will be among the first carriers to offer the Play. “We will work very closely with AT&T in launching different products as well,” he added.

The company is also shifting more of its design and engineering to the U.S., Uddenfeldt said, noting that the Redwood Shores, Calif., office where he works, established just two years ago, now has about 300 workers doing everything from product design and engineering to business development.

“It’s the right place to be,” he said. “We have Android there. We have Facebook.”

Uddenfeldt has a unique perspective, having been with Sony Ericsson for only six months but at the same time being a 30-year Ericsson veteran and being based in Silicon Valley for the past several years. He’s also not afraid to admit that the company has made mistakes, including in the past year as it tried to move from proprietary Walkman and Cybershot phones to a fully Android-based lineup.

“I don’t think Sony Ericsson fully understood the importance of being on the latest Android release,” he said. “That kind of hindered a little bit the growth of the company during last year.”

However, he said, with the move to Android, the company has stemmed its losses and has now had four profitable quarters. This year, he said, it is time for growth.