No 'Sony Ericsson' from next year

In case you have been living in a cave all this while, you'd probably know Sony has bought out Ericsson's half of the Sony Ericsson smartphone-making joint venture. Sony is going to go solo from here, which as things go, might be a blessing in disguise.

So as things go, we won't be 'Sony Ericsson' starting early next year. There will be some changes in the brand, although the 'E' bit would be phased out only by Q3.

Q3 2012 is when we'd probably seeing smartphones out of Sony's stables. Meanwhile, Sony will be launching the SE protos like Nozomi that were slated to be launched early 2012, so we're not going to miss out on any of the action.

Source : Unknown13x@xda

Sony buys Ericsson out of mobile phone venture

Sony has agreed to buy Ericsson's half of the Sony Ericsson smartphone-making joint venture, the two companies announced on Thursday.

Sony will pay Ericsson about $1.5 billion for its stake in the company, which makes a wide range of smartphones with some Google Android handsets among its offering.

The move will make Sony Ericsson a "wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony and integrated into Sony's broad platform of network-connected consumer electronics products," the companies said in a statement on the deal, which has been rumored for months.

Sony's connected products include desktop and laptop PCs, tablets, TVs, digital cameras, Blu-ray players and PlayStation gaming consoles, as well as online services such as the PlayStation Network or Sony Online Entertainment. The tech giant also owns the Sony Pictures film studio and record labels as well.

As a part of the deal, Sony and Ericsson will also cross-license and share in ownership of "five essential patent families "relating to wireless handset technology."

The patent segment of this deal reflects the growing concern handset makers have for growing their respective patent portfolios.

"With a vibrant smartphone business and by gaining access to important strategic IP, notably a broad cross-license agreement, our four-screen strategy is in place," said Howard Stringer, Sony's chairman, chief executive and president in a statement. "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 Ericsson was launched on Oct. 1, 2001, and at that time combined "the unprofitable handset operations from Ericsson and Sony," the two companies said. "Following a successful turnaround the company has become a market leader in the development of feature phones by integrating Sony's strong consumer products knowledge and Ericsson's telecommunications technology leadership. The Walkman phone and Cyber-shot phone are well-known examples."

But feature phones (or just regular cellphones that can do things such as store and play music, shoot photos and video but not run full-out mobile apps) are less desired nowadays than smartphones and with connectivity and online services becoming increasingly important, Sony sees an opportunity in taking over the company fully.

"Ten years ago when we formed the joint venture ... it was a perfect match to drive the development of feature phones," said Hans Vestberg, chief executive and president of Ericsson. "Today we take an equally logical step as Sony acquires our stake in Sony Ericsson and makes it a part of its broad range of consumer devices. We will now enhance our focus on enabling connectivity for all devices, using our R&D and industry leading patent portfolio to realize a truly connected world."

The boards of both companies have approved the buyout deal, which is subject to regulatory approval. Sony and Ericsson said they expect the deal to close sometime in January.

‘Be The Master of Games’ on the Xperia Play

Beginning today, the company will launch what it claims is India’s biggest mobile gaming tournament across 11 cities. Over the next four weeks, users will get to play its recently-launched Xperia PLAY — the world’s first PlayStation-certified smartphone powered by Qualcomm’s (Snapdragon) mobile processor, “bringing console quality gaming experience to end users”. Christened ‘Be The Master of Games’, the corporate gaming championship, according to Prasun Kumar, Marketing Head, Sony Ericsson India, hopes to reach out to more than 100 organisations.

The tournament will run across 44 Zapak Gameplexes in 11 cities. Indian gamers will come together to compete for the title of ‘Best Gamer,’ and will have the opportunity to use Sony Ericsson’s Xperia PLAY smartphone. The Xperia model has over 100 game titles and “offers a broad range of games that appeal to all types of gamers”.

While Sony Ericsson India has collaborated with India’s largest gaming company Zapak to create experiences around the Xperia PLAY, it has also partnered with Qualcomm which powers the Xperia PLAY with the Snapdragon mobile processor which “works to power the high-performance, console quality game experience on the Xperia PLAY with extended hours of game-play between charges”, according to Sandeep Sibal, vice president of Business Development for Qualcomm India and South Asia.

Sony Ericsson India has also tied up with Tata Docomo which will provide the event participants free data service (3GB) for three months. “Gaming is incomplete without data play. Here’s where Tata Docomo fits in. It will help them service high ARPU potential customers,” explains Kumar.

In India, Nokia is the leader with around 49 per cent share followed by Samsung (17 per cent), LG and Blackberry (5 per cent each), Micromax (4 per cent) and Apple and HTC (1 per cent each), according to Deloitte figures. Sony Ericsson has a market share of about 7%.

To strengthen its brand and give an impetus to its phones based on the Android (Google’s operating system for cellphones) platform in India, Sony Ericsson has also appointed P Balaji as managing director for its Indian operations. He will take charge on July 1 this year.

Two new feature phones – Txt pro and Mix

Sony Ericsson has just revealed two new feature phones set to launch later this year in a Facebook competition. The txt pro is the phone we had already seen leaked previously (CK15i), featuring a slide-out keyboard, four-corner UI and a single home key on the front screen.

The Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman phone looks almost exactly like the WT18i (a China-only model), so we might be seeing similar specs. That might mean an 800MHz CPU, 3.2” HVGA screen, 3MP camera with VGA@24fps video capture.

Both handsets are expected to launch soon.

What's new with Facebook integration

Sony Ericsson just announced they plan to bump up the Facebook integration on their XPERIA phones to a whole new level. Beyond the obvious single sign-on and contacts and calendar sync, Facebook will now show its face at numerous places throughout the Xperia user interface.

So what's new:

• There's a Like button in the music player, so you can share the tracks you like.
• The photos shared by your friends on Facebook now have a dedicated tab in the Timescape UI.
• Facebook notifications now appear alongside your mised calls and text messages on your lockscreen.
• The Android image gallery now integrates your photo albums from Facebook besides the Picasa web albums.
• A new Media discovery widget will automatically show you the videos and music shared by your friends.
• Besides getting synced with Facebook, contacts now have new tabs full of their likes, interests, wall activity, and photos and videos.

The new Facebook integration will come standard issue on the new Xperia pro and pro mini, but it will be implemented on the entire 2011 Xperia lineup via an update by Q2. 

Xperia mini and mini pro announced

It was about time now, wasn't it? Sony Ericsson finally unveiled the successors to its minis.
The Xperia mini and the Xperia mini pro, touted as the smallest HD smartphones in the world. The two Mini devices feature Sony’s Mobile BRAVIA display engine and Sony Ericsson’s custom four-corner Android UI with Timescape.

Both the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini and Xperia mini pro get their power kick from 512MB RAM and 1GHz Snapdragon processors (QSD8255 for the Xperia mini and the MSM8255 for the Xperia mini pro). They also share the same 3-inch TFT touchscreen with a resolution of 480x320 pixels.
The two Minis brag the same 5 megapixel snapper with LED flash at the back. Plus, their cameras are capable of shooting 720p HD video.

In addition to these decent specifications, the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini measures at 88 x 52 x 16mm and weighs in at just 99 grams. The phone also comes with 320MB of internal storage expandable up to 32GB with a microSD card.

What makes the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro different is the sliding QWERTY keyboard as well as a scratch resistant mineral glass screen. As a result it weighs 136 grams and packs 400MB of internal memory. But don’t worry, microSD card support is still present.

Both phones come in variety of colors, Black, White and Pink. The Xperia Mini has a special Blue color version, while the Mini Pro has a Turquoise one. The Xperia mini and mini pro share the same 1200mAh battery. The devices are expected to hit the market in August this year

Xperia Play outed, mad rush begins

Today, XPERIA Play hit the world in many markets - UK, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. With a number of optimized games and Playstation 1 games included in the Android Market and Playstation Pocket to help the Play to a great start.
The amount of games, available for the XPERIA Play is more than 60, and they will all be downloadable in the first week. Playstation 2 games will be arriving shortly.

Sony Ericsson to Unlock Bootloader

Sony Ericsson has announced that certain mobiles in its Xperia Range will support unlocking of the boot-loader.

The unlocking of the boot-loader will enable users and developers to flash their mobile with custom ROMs. Additionally, it will enable you to load other operating systems on your mobile which will prove highly desirable to some users.

The feature has been demanded for a long time by Sony Ericsson users and will no doubt be hugely appreciated.

However, only a select number of mobiles are supported which are the Xperia Arc, (pictured above) Xperia Neo, Xperia Pro and Xperia Play. Furthermore, only devices bought SIM-free will support boot-loader unlocking in order to protect the networks.

Sony Ericsson is warning that using custom ROMS and unlocking the boot-loader may void your warranty. Additionally, they are pushing the fact that unofficial ROMS don’t go through the rigorous testing that official releases do.

Four new Xperia smartphones coming

Sony Ericsson expects to launch the Xperia arc, Xperia Play and Xperia Neo during Q1, whilst the Xperia Pro will launch at some point in Q2. However, Sony Ericsson’s Chief Executive, Bert Nordberg, has revealed that in addition to these, the company plans to announce at least four new handsets by the end of the year. Whilst no details were given, he confirmed that all eight devices will be made available in the US.

Nordberg expects that new handset launches will increasingly be sold in the US first in an effort to increase market share. The US currently represents 45% of the Android market currently. He is targeting a long-term global Android market share of 25 percent, up from 14 percent currently.

The market has changed. We see a lot of our products being rolled out in the U.S. first, or in parallel when we roll it out on the global market, which is a change for this company. It has always come later in the U.S. previously. That’s a change which required us to invest,” Nordberg said.

To build market share the company is investing heavily in software developers both in the US and China. The company has tripled development staff in California to 300 in the past year whilst those in Beijing are now at 1,600, up by 60 percent.

He also went on to confirm that the Xperia Play will launch in April in the US, whilst the Chinese launch will follow three months later. All eight devices are expected to be available in China through the W-CDMA network of China United Network Communications during 2011.

Businessweek

XPERIA X10 to get Gingerbread in Q2

Whoa! Now this was a pleasant surprise, wasn't it?

Rikard Skogberg at the Sony Ericsson Product Blog today confirmed that the Sony Ericsson X10 will receive a Gingerbread update . The update will be available in the end of Q2 / early Q3 this year. Only X10 will receive the 2.3 update, not the minis or X8.

Skogberg wrote that the reason behind this upcoming update is that Sony Ericsson listens to its clients requests. On the changes that Gingerbread would bring, Mr. Skogberg had this to say: "In short, we plan to bring similar software and functionality to Xperia X10 as we have in our new 2011 Xperia smartphones. Our ambition is to provide the majority of functionality of the Gingerbread platform, as well as the Sony Ericsson specific User Experience and features."
Also some current software functions will disappear. The camera app will get the standard Gingerbread UI, Mediascape will be replaced by the newest Sony Ericsson Android media widgets, included in the Arc, Neo and Play. The Sony Ericsson Backup and Restore app will be lost since Gingerbread doesn't support it.

Source

World's slimmest smartphone - Xperia Arc Announced

Sony Ericsson finally put an end to all the rumors and leaks by announcing its latest and greatest Android smartphone, the Xperia Arc!

Here is a device that, upon first glance and then subsequently digging into the specs, I can’t help but feel a few notches of excitement about.

The Xperia Arc is a device that features Sony’s Reality Display, along with Sony’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine, which is designed to bring the best multimedia experience possible to a device. On the back of the device, there’s an 8MP camera with Sony’s Exmor R photo enhancement technology,with f/2.4 lens. The camera is also able to record 720p HD. There's an LED flash too. And, theres an HDMI out port. The arc-like design results into only 9mm thickness on the both ends and 8.7mm in the slimmest part.

Under the hood, you’ll find Android 2.3, with a 1GHz Qualcomm processor pushing everything along. The display is a 4.2-inches. There’s a 3.5mm audio jack, and the standard additions: 802.11 WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth connectivity and 512 MB RAM. There will be an 8GB microSD card bundled with it so that should provide you with adequate storage out of the box.

The 4.2-inch capacitive display is attractively called the Reality display. It uses Sony's BRAVIA Mobile Engine, which does real-time noise reduction, sharpness, color management and contrast enhancement on the picture. It has 854x480 pixels resolution and is covered with a scratch-resistant glass. There is still no official info on the screen type, but I believe its TFT.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc will be available in late Q1 or early Q2 in Midnight Blue and Misty Silver.

Check out these videos:

Press Release

Xperia for MWC confirmed; Play, Arc, Duo & Neo?

Sony Ericsson has confirmed that it will be announcing "new members of the Xperia family" at February's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Sony Ericsson will be holding their press event on 13th February at 18.00, a day before the show kicks off.

As reported earlier, the company recently filed trademarks for four Xperia brands: Xperia Play, Xperia Neo, Xperia Arc, and Xperia Duo; while the first branding likely refers to the upcoming PlayStation Phone, codenamed Zeus, the other three are just as mysterious now as before.

Xperia Arc - No information on this phone as yet except to say that it could feature a 'sliding arc keyboard' similar in design to the Xperia X1.

Xperia Duo - Dual core processor maybe?

Xperia Neo - No information on this whatsoever


The date’s already marked in my diary and I can’t wait to bring you the latest news as it happens. 2011 is going to be a great year for an SE fan, I can surely tell you that much! :)

Xperia X10 Experience Packs: XP110, XP120 and XP130

Remember those Experience Packs that Sony Ericsson talked about when announcing the LiveView micro display?

Well, the first three of them are now official. They’re the XP110 Fitness Experience Pack, the XP120 Business Experience Pack, and the XP130 Design Experience Pack.

Here’s what’s included in them:

XP110 Fitness Experience Pack – LiveView micro display, SportyPal Pro app, wristband, clip, and a Micro USB charger. It is compatible with the Xperia X10 Mini and Xperia X0 Mini Pro

XP120 Business Experience Pack – Bluetooth Noise Shield Handsfree VH700, Office Suite Pro application with life time license, WaveSecure application with 6 months usage rights, and Micro USB Cable EC300. It is compatible with the Xperia X10, Xperia X10 Mini and Xperia X0 Mini Pro

XP130 Design Experience Pack – three fashionable back covers, lanyards, “a chic set of charms”, “style wallpapers”, Fashion News app, Celebrity Gossip app, and Ship Chick app. It is compatible only with the Xperia X10 Mini

Availability and pricing is still unknown. Check them out by hitting the links below:

XP110
XP120
XP130

Android 2.2 Coming to XPERIA X10 in Q2 2011

Sony Ericsson is secretively working on a Froyo update for their XPERIA X10. Unfortunately, this update won't come before Q2 2011.

This new bit of info comes from a Sony Ericsson Turkish support representative. Their statement was the following (message in Turkish):

However, this should not be mistaken for an official announcement from the company. Nothing was announced on the upcoming availability of Android 2.2 for Xperia X10 is what Sony Ericsson would say on the matter.

Let's hope it is also available for the minis and the X8. Watch this space for more!

"We'll Make Android Noise in Feb 2011"

Sony Ericsson promises to make Android noise in February 2011, and goes far in promising a diversified Android lineup.

When talking to the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg promised to make a lot of noise with a new product at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2011. He said that the challenge of making a gaming-oriented smartphone is to secure rights from game publishers. "I'm very glad that we work with a company like Sony, who actually knows how to do it," he told the WSJ.

Bert Nordberg expects Android to remain the "dominant" smartphone platform in Sony Ericsson's lineup for at least the next two years. He also took a clear shot at the iPhone 4:

"The current generation of smartphones with touchscreens is not "optimized for games".

And it looks like Sony Ericsson plans to give Apple competition in that regard next year, as the company is expected to release the Sony Ericsson PlayStation phone next year, featuring a slide-out game pad. The WSJ reports that it'll likely carry the Xperia brand.

The company will also release the Sony Ericsson Xperia X12 in early 2011, a smartphone featuring a second-generation 800MHz Snapdragon chipset (think T-Mobile G2) and a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen. This smartphone could possibly get a close tie to the new Sony Internet TV lineup.

In other words, within a few months, Sony Ericsson could suddenly have two high-end smartphone offerings that aren't relying on social networking features alone. And it looks like that's exactly what's going to happen, as the Sony Ericsson CEO said that the company is looking to diversify its Android lineup.

"Sony is of course a very strong brand, and why shouldn't we use that? Gaming including content, is a very interesting proposition."

Xperia X8 Android 2.1 update rolling out!

We didn't have to wait as long as the poor X10 users now did we? You've read the golden words folks. 

Sony Ericsson has started rolling out the Android 2.1 update for the Xperia X8.

X8 2.1 update 2.0.1.A.0.47 is now available through SEUS/PC Companion in Russia. 

New and improved features that you will get when upgrading to Android 2.1:

• Send files via Bluetooth™
• New additional applications will be available in Market
• New Back up and restore application
• Multiple Google accounts
• Improved screen lock

Note: After the upgrade to Android 2.1 it is not possible to go back to Android 1.6.

Go and get yours now!

Sony Ericsson 2011 Roadmap

Eldar at Mobile-review has just been doling out tidbits of information on Sony Ericsson's upcoming launches.

• Most handsets are running Android. Sony Ericsson's own UI on older versions of Android. Even X12 is running on 2.1 atm. Updates to 2.3 will come later.

• SE Vivaz/Vivaz Pro will have successors with Android (2.1 Android today, 2.3 update later) - March 2011, 300/330 Euro RRP/MSRP

• SE X10 Mini/Mini Pro will get an update around March/April 2011-slimmer, faster CPU, bigger screen-Android 2.3 + own 4 corner UI. The same price tag-200/250 Euro

• SE Yendo will get QWERTY keyboard by June 2011, low end phone (ODM). 140 Euro (no Walkman brand here)

• A200 platform is almost abandoned, a few new products aren't looking good. SE didn't decide yet to launch or not.

Sony Ericsson's Anzu / X12 leaks

It's only been a week since the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 got its long awaited Android 2.1 update and now we get to meet its successor, the Anzu a.k.a. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X12. The first live shot of the rumored device has just been spotted in the wild and word is the smartphone is about to arrive in Q1 2011.

As far as the specs go, it is said to be "very, very slim" , even slimmer than Galaxy S and will pack a large 4.3" display, a secondary video-call camera, an HDMI port as well as a 12MP camera with 1080p video recording.

The prototype in the pics runs on Android 2.1 but it is slated to be running Android 2.3 a.k.a Gingerbread at launch.

There's no info yet on the CPU or RAM, but its sure to atleast run on the 1 Ghz Snapdragon. Details about the display are slim except that it is very crisp with vivid colours. Let's hope SE has implemented multitouch this time.

Via: XperiaX10 blog

X10 Family Update: Rollout starts Sunday

Rikard at the Product Blog has just posted that they will start the roll-out of the Android 2.1 based updates for Xperia X10, X10 mini and X10 mini pro coming Sunday. The roll out will start in the evening European time.

Generic kits for the Nordic countries will be the very first ones out on Sunday evening and then there will be more kits coming already during Monday and then the roll-out will continue throughout the month of November.

The key changes for the different products are the following:

Xperia X10:
• HD video recording with continuous auto-focus for high quality videos
• Upgrade of the Android platform to Android 2.1
• New back up and restore application, with extended content back up
• 5 homescreens for apps, widgets, shortcuts and folders
• Social phonebook which automatically syncs contact pictures from Facebook and shows when your friends are online

Xperia X10 mini and X10 mini pro:
• Improved Bluetooth functionality with support for sending and receiving pictures, contacts and more
• New backup and restore application with extended content back up
• Automatic synchronization of your contact pictures between Facebook and your phone book
• Improved ways of handling pictures, audio, text and numbers in your messages
• Upgrade of the Android platform to Android platform 2.1

In most markets, your phone will automatically let you know with a notification when the update is ready for your specific software version and then you will be guided to how to perform the update using the PC Companion software. In that process, because of this being a big update, you will also be guided through some steps to be able to backup personal data before the update and then restore it when the update is finished.

As far as the X8 is concerned, it will get it's update "later in Q4" although I havn't been able to confirm when exactly is 'later'. Will keep you all posted!

The PlayStation Phone: Yes it's Real

Finally, the wait is over.

For years, fans have been clamoring for the device, known as the PlayStation Phone, and Sony Ericsson has finally blinked.

The pictures you are looking at were posted on Engadget yesterday. The device is said to be running the latest version of Android i.e. Gingerbread. The actual release date might be the end of this year but it's more likely to be in 2011.

Other specs include:

1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 Snapdragon Processor
512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM
Screen - 3.7 to 4.1 inches
microSD support

The particular model in these shots is still a prototype. As such, the unit doesn't have a custom skin (not even SE's Timescape design seen on the Xperia devices), and is said to be rather buggy.
But am sure Sony Ericsson will iron out all the flaws before the actual launch.