The divorce papers have been officially signed for Sony Ericsson, giving Japanese entertainment biz Sony its very own phone-making unit and Swedish company Ericsson some lovely cash. Sony announced that the transaction was a done deal today and said that it was renaming the business to Sony Mobile Communications. The …

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Thursday 16th February 2012 13:13 GMT Chad H.

Hmmmm...

The divorce papers have been officially signed for Sony Ericsson, giving Japanese entertainment biz Sony its very own phone-making unit and Swedish company Ericsson some lovely cash.

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I think I know who the winner is here - and its not sony.

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Thursday 16th February 2012 13:43 GMT Manu T

"Sony Ericsson had been in trouble for some time as its later generations of smartphones failed to make a dent in the super-soaraway popularity of iPhones and Android."

Eh???....but Sony Ericsson's smartphones ARE using Android?!?!

The reason why their products failed is because their crap. They use the cheapest of materials, worst of quality control and worst of after sales repair services (DynaFix indeed) AND they even have the nerve to release them with outdated OS-revisions whilst demanding premium prices.

After the solidly build K700 it all went downhill. They had some success with the technically very good K750i/K800i (unfortunately those models weal spot was their joystick-cursor-contoll) which was a year later rectified with e.g. K550i (which by itself had a worse camera) but by then it was much too late.

Sony's had no success at all in the early 2000's wih their own cell-phones (at least not outside japan). It's thanks to Ericsson that Sony as a cellphone-maker didn't vanish. Now with the japanese back at the helm AND with most of their worldwide operations closed down (there's enough to be find on the web regarding their Atlanta's HQ fiasco), I have no confidence in them nor their products

Those 2 cheap Android plastic phones that they'll release (probably with an out-dated Android version as usual) at premium prices (as usual) aren't going to keep that division afloat for long.

Oh well, things change they say. However they never told me that things change for the worst.

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1. Thursday 16th February 2012 15:44 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Optional
  
  "The reason why their products failed is because their crap."
  
  Their what crap?
  
  5 0
  1. Thursday 16th February 2012 21:01 GMT John Sanders
    
    Re: Optional
    
    Obviously their crap, the one they put in the phones...
    
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2. Friday 17th February 2012 12:55 GMT Afflicted.John
  
  Tosh
  
  My wife's Xperia Mini Pro is a fabulous phone. Well made, and user friendly. I'd argue the best small screen Android implementation I have seen.
  
  Nothing wrong their 2011 phones. They made some mistakes before then but there is no reason why they cannot start to challenge Samsung. Let's face it - Samsung phones are androgynous bricks. I still bought a Galaxy Note, but would have preferred something more Xperian....
  
  The Min Pro had an update to 2.3.6 last night. A damn sight better than most Android manufacturers and ICS is planned in then ext month or two. I cannot complain at all about them...
  
  2 0
Thursday 16th February 2012 14:53 GMT SMPASS

What a shame I loved my Ericsson SH888 an R380 and was a big fan of S-E with the P800, 910 and 990. They we way ahead of the competition.

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Thursday 16th February 2012 15:08 GMT TRT

:-(

I've had several people asking where can they get a phone as small and robust as my little T303. You just can't get a simple, small, tough phone any more. They are mostly whopping great things with no battery life; not very useful as a communications device.

Still, someone will spot the gap in the market soon enough.

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1. Thursday 16th February 2012 16:52 GMT Giles Jones
  
  Re: :-(
  
  Hence why I shake my head in disbelief every time a new Android phone is announced with an even bigger screen. Someone somewhere will justify carrying a 7 inch screened phone soon.
  
  Perhaps this is why people don't carry their phones around the office. They go off repeatedly with phone calls, messages and calendar reminders and nobody is there to stop them.
  
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2. Thursday 16th February 2012 20:09 GMT Chad H.
  
  Re: :-(
  
  Sonim might have the phone for you TRT
  
  http://revk.www.me.uk/2011/02/sonim-xp210-spirit-3g.html
  
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  1. Friday 17th February 2012 15:13 GMT TRT
    
    Re: Re: :-(
    
    @Chad.
    
    Nice. Very nice. But pricey and a lot larger than a T303. Good standby time that Sonim has, though. I'm very impressed with that!
    
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3. Friday 17th February 2012 08:25 GMT kevin biswas
  
  Re: :-(
  
  Yeah, I dont really like the smartphone form factor. Too big, power hungry and fragile to be a good phone or mucic player. Too small and fiddly to be a good computer. Generally second rate as a camera. Smartphones are the jack of all trades but master of none.
  
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Thursday 16th February 2012 15:11 GMT Alan W. Rateliff, II

Maybe a change in how the US market is handled?

One of my biggest complaints about Sony Ericsson was how the market in the United States has been handled over the past four years or so: all but ignored. Delayed releases, cancelled releases (or re-releases,) diminished support, and diminished quality, amongst others.

In a number of phones, it seemed like SE had a great idea and then lost interest part-way through. I believe it could have continued to done really well with its Java Platform operating system which runs the majority of the "feature phones," including the CyberShot and Walkman series phones. Some of the newer ones run Android, now, which does not do much to set them apart from competitors, but does seem to open up a new dimension of applications.

A big concern I have is the "openness" of future phones from Sony. Sony Ericsson phones have been customizable using third-party utilities for a long time, including simple XML customizations, firmware mods and ELFs, etc. I spent some time to develop my own packs so that I can have the phone exactly the way I want it right out of the box (with some exceptions, of course.) It seems SE kind-of turned a blind eye to this "modding" of phones (knowing it happens, but I have yet to turn up full documentation on customize.xml,) but I think we all know how Sony approaches this expression of user freedom.

Paris, she's an expression of user freedom, too.

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1. Friday 17th February 2012 09:37 GMT Levente Szileszky
  
  Re: Maybe a change in how the US market is handled?
  
  SO TRUE, so true.
  
  Just look at EVERY SE Android phone: they GIVE IT TO AT&T, the "iPhone-only" provider.
  
  No retail, nobody else, only the provider who's rated as the WORST FOR YEARS- nuff said...
  
  I swear it's the STUPIDEST MANAGEMENT on Earth - just to show how clueless they are: they had one of the very first advanced/customized Android phones out there (X10), with the new AWS 1700MHz support (aka UMTS band IV), the X10 - you'd think it's a natural fit for Android's earliest supporter T-Mobile USA which launched their then-uberfast 3G/4G years ago on 1700MHz...
  
  ...so the X10 came to the US almost a year late and where did they choose to launch it?
  
  Yep, on iPhone-infested AT&T.
  
  Seriously, it's waaay beyond the usual arrogant-clueless Japanese incompetency - it's just SHEER STUPIDITY.
  
  It wouldn't take a management genius to notice that
  
  1. AT&T only cares about the iPhone, NOTHING ELSE.
  
  2. AT&T devalues the brand by putting it up for $100-150 at launch
  
  3. T-Mobile was always the best Android-based provider and the Qualcomm platform SE uses to build phones had the 1700Mhz band since day 1.
  
  And this is on the top of the utter chaos they call software development...
  
  ..FFS fire all clueless Swedish developers and useless Japanese managers - they got it BACKWARDS.:).They should have left the Japanese alone to develop their crazy ideas but ban them from any market management - they are clearly horrible at that, just like Swedish developers wasted time all sorts of useless crap instead of quickly reaching OS version parity with competitors.
  
  I, for one, am still rooting for these phones but the lack of TMO option and the totally worthless management really destroys whatever cool stuff those crazy Japs dream up & introduce in Xperias.
  
  Alas, unless they fire their top management I don't think it will change.
  
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Thursday 16th February 2012 15:33 GMT Graham Marsden

Erm...

... so what is my phone now? A Sony? An Ericsson? A Sony (minus) Ericsson...?

0 1
1. Thursday 16th February 2012 15:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Re: Erm...
  
  Still the same as before. Shite.
  
  3 6
Thursday 16th February 2012 16:07 GMT pear

rockin' out on a k800i i got on ebay for £20, it seems to work quite well! I had a c903, it went bust whcih was probably a sign of things to come, it seemed noticeably less well implemented despite having a great spec.

Sony could potentially succeed with media oriented android devices if it wanted a niche, walkman android kinda thing.

3 0
1. Thursday 16th February 2012 21:58 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  ....quick
  
  Can we trademark the name?
  
  WalkManDroid!
  
  2 0
Thursday 16th February 2012 16:52 GMT Terry 13

A mystery

Phones like the Xperia Arc S are excellent to use, competitively priced (i.e. much cheaper than either the Samsung or Apple equivalents), get great reviews and have a premium brand (i.e. Sony). Frankly, I don't understand why Sony/SE has such a small market share. Either SE can't produce in volume or their marketing is utterly inept. Can someone please enlighten me?

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1. Thursday 16th February 2012 16:54 GMT Giles Jones
  
  Re: A mystery
  
  People had owned their phones before and moved on, just like they had from Nokia. It takes a lot to go back to a brand you used to use but moved on from.
  
  0 0
2. Thursday 16th February 2012 20:40 GMT Tom 38
  
  Re: A mystery
  
  A cheap turd is still a turd. Why pay mildly obscene for a crap phone, when you can pay obscene for a good one.
  
  0 1
3. Thursday 16th February 2012 21:58 GMT Chet Mannly
  
  Re: A mystery
  
  SE phones are (were?) always behind the times technologically.
  
  Eg - when Dual core phones were the norm and rumours of quad core phones were starting Sony Ericsson released their new Arc with an overclocked single core CPU. This is probably fine technically (I own an SGSII and don't see any day-to-day difference) but two is better than one from a marketing perspective...
  
  Plus before the Arc they were releasing Android phones with seriously outdated operating systems and got a bad rep for upgrades.
  
  At least with Androids you always seemed to be buying last years phone if it was a Sony Ericsson...
  
  1 0
  1. Friday 17th February 2012 09:38 GMT Levente Szileszky
    
    Re: Re: A mystery
    
    This is utter nonsense, for multiple reason:
    
    1. average-bit user does not know jack about cores or anything
    
    2. user experience matters and they are AHEAD of the pack.
    
    "At least with Androids you always seemed to be buying last years phone if it was a Sony Ericsson.."
    
    Nah, it's just you and your lack of understanding, trust me. ;)
    
    0 0
4. Friday 17th February 2012 00:41 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Re: A mystery
  
  Thanks for the laugh...
  
  <quote>have a premium brand (i.e. Sony)</quote>
  
  Lol. Where have you been for the last 15 years?
  
  0 0
5. Friday 17th February 2012 09:38 GMT Levente Szileszky
  
  Re: A mystery
  
  I fully agree, their phones are very advanced and way better designed than any other phone on the market and I also have the answer for you: HORRIBLE, absolutely CLUELESS, super-incompetent MANAGEMENT (see my comment above.)
  
  1 0
Thursday 16th February 2012 18:10 GMT J. R. Hartley

shame.

W995 is still the single best phone ever made. Shame it's the end of the line.

0 1
1. Friday 17th February 2012 15:31 GMT TRT
  
  Re: shame.
  
  Just had a look at it. That is an awesome spec.
  
  0 0
Thursday 16th February 2012 21:58 GMT Stu 18

2 SE phones owned

Two bad experiences.

The last one was recommended on this site. Goes to show that relying on 'reviewers' that probably don't do much more than turn it on and read the box cover is a waste of time!

0 0
Thursday 16th February 2012 22:25 GMT Paul 135

Many commenters here just don't have a clue

The 2011 Xperias are awesome and much better value than most of the competition.

There is still nothing on the market in Europe that competes with the Xperia Pro.

3 0
1. Friday 17th February 2012 01:23 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Re: Many commenters here just don't have a clue
  
  I agree. I'm on my 4th consecutive SE phone (2nd Xperia). All still work, only the 1st Xperia has an issue with the earpiece after being dropped too many times (still works, but a connections has become loose).
  
  From my perspective they are all good phones. I may not agree with all their design choices all the time (why on earth did they give up on the camera button of the K750i? IMO the best 2 stage camera button I've seen on any phone), but I do think they have important things to contribute to the mobile world.
  
  In terms of form factors, they are/were one of the few Android based manufacturers to have something different. If you don't know what I mean, then you don't know about the Xperia range. To some it's not just about pixels, inches and cores.
  
  2 0
2. Friday 17th February 2012 12:58 GMT Afflicted.John
  
  Re: Many commenters here just don't have a clue
  
  A'men brother.
  
  0 0
Friday 17th February 2012 00:47 GMT asdf

wow

The fanbois have been telling us how great Sony is for long time but all I see is 5 straight years of losses, several billion dollar loss taking out their CEO and Sony continuing down the same long road of suicide ala Hari Nokia.

1 0
Friday 17th February 2012 08:23 GMT Buster Minal

I'll also add my support....

....for the fantastic Xperia Ray my missus has. Much better then my iPhone 3GS and a cheaper contract as well.

1 0
Friday 17th February 2012 10:36 GMT BurnStuff

Xperia Ray

When my girlfriend needed a new phone I wanted to move her to Android and she wanted something small enough to find in a skinny jeans pocket. The answer was the Xperia Ray, smaller and cheaper than the competition while still having plenty of power. While it wouldn't necessarily be my first choice it fits her perfectly!

1 0
Friday 17th February 2012 10:48 GMT DaddyHoggy

I've always used SE Phones.

W200i was cheap but I used it as a music player and hardly as a phone and it was fine.

K800i lovely to use, fabulous camera, not bad as a music player, not bad as a phone (unfortunately it WSOD and SE wanted lots of money to even look at it)

C902 (the phone I'm using at the moment and which I like very much)

Satio - Oh dear lord, what an utterly useless "Smartphone" - I hated it from the moment I got to use it and it's the reason I've gone back to the C902. When I'm ready to try a smartphone again it will be HTC or Samsung, I'm never going back Sony again. That bridge is well and truly burned.

1 0
Tuesday 21st February 2012 08:38 GMT Hans 1

Xperia 10 - pisstaking

From wikipedia:

"The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is a high end smartphone in the Xperia series designed by Sony Ericsson. It is the first Sony Ericsson smartphone to utilize the Android operating system. The phone was shipped with Android 1.6, but an upgrade to 2.1 was made available starting October 31, 2010, with a gradual international rollout. Originally, Sony Ericsson stated that the X10 would not receive an upgrade to Android 2.2 (Froyo) or beyond [...]"

This is where they got it all wrong, taking the piss of their customers, they committed HaraKiri !

"[... ] the phone has since received an upgrade to 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) starting July 29, 2011. [...]"

Too late ... the rest is history ....

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