Filed under: Sony Ericsson

It’s out with the old, in with the new over at Sony Ericsson as it tries to revamp both its image and its lineup in the face of stiff competition, weak financials, and an unfocused platform strategy. President Hideki Komiyama (pictured left) intends to retire at the end of the year, and stepping up to fill his shoes will be the current head of Ericsson Silicon Valley, Bert Nordberg (right). To get the dude up to speed, he’ll become co-president as of September 1 and take over sole control of the operation on October 15. Speaking of October 15, that’s also the date that Sir Howard Stringer — yes, the one and only chairman and CEO of Sony — will take over the chairmanship of Sony Ericsson’s executive board from outgoing Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg. Whether this signals a power shift in the joint venture from Ericsson to Sony is unclear, but they’ve specifically mentioned in a press conference today to announce the moves that they need to “address [their] smartphone weakness” — and yes, we’d agree. Do exactly that, Bert Nordberg.

Sony Ericsson selects next president, appoints Howard Stringer chairman of the board originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA

Remember that geometrically-inspired Bao handset we peeked back in July? Turns out Sony Ericsson has another name for it: Jalou. Announced today in both boring and limited edition Dolce&Gabbana versions, the compact-esque clamshell is definitely designed to put “style” first and substance last. Reportedly shorter than “your favorite lipstick,” the cellie is actually marketed more as an accessory and less of a phone, boasting a diamond shape design, two-inch display, 3.2 megapixel geotagging camera, video recording, built-in mirror (seriously), an FM tuner, Bluetooth 2.0, multimedia player, step counter, antediluvian web browser and quad-band GSM / tri-band HSPA connectivity. The “normal” version is expected in Q4 in Deep Amethyst, Aquamarine Blue and Onyx Black, while the 24k gold-plated D&G edition will ship in Sparkling Rose along with a matching Bluetooth headset and fanciful packaging. No prices are mentioned for either, naturally.

Read – Standard Jalou
Read – Dolce&Gabbana Jalou
Read – Hands-on with standard Jalou

Sony Ericsson eyes fashionistas with Dolce&Gabbana Jalou clamshell originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, Accessories

It isn’t every day that a phone includes wireless stereo headphones in the box — yes, that’s right, we said wireless — so when we saw the Sony Ericsson MH100 earn its FCC wings, we stood up and took notice. The MH100 is a color-coordinated A2DP clip-on with a 3.5mm jack and remote controls, making it the perfect complement to the Aino’s advanced multimedia capabilities (including PlayStation Remote Play support, if you recall), and it’s nice to know that you won’t have to shell out for one of these suckers on top of the untold hundreds of euro you’re dropping on the phone itself. Speaking of the Aino, though, maybe the more interesting find in the FCC filing is the inclusion of the phone’s user manual, where you can get the lowdown on Remote Play, the built-in Facebook client, and details on the interface for that glorious 8.1 megapixel cam. Actually, large portions of the draft manual seem missing or half-assed, so we’re guessing we’ll see this get a lot more interesting by the time they pack the phones for retail.

Sony Ericsson Aino’s wireless headphones get FCC approval, Aino gets a user manual originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

If you celebrate French DJ and producer Bob Sinclar’s entire catalog (and who doesn’t?), we’d like to direct your attention to a very special version of Sony Ericsson’s W508 Walkman clamshell that’s launching in “select European markets” this quarter. The aptly-named W508 Bob Sinclar Edition has the usual array of pack-ins that you expect from any self-respecting special edition — wallpapers, ringtones, themes, and a unique mega-colorful cover — but it also includes a copy of Sinclar’s latest album, Born In 69, right in the box. Of course, you’ll need to be cool with a QVGA display and 3.2 megapixel cam, but really, who needs 8 megapixels when you’re in the VIP section of a basically unlit club with French house music permeating your very core?

Sony Ericsson’s W508 coming in stunning Bob Sinclar bundle originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: CDMA, LTE

Arguably the crown jewel lying in fallen giant Nortel’s corpse, the company’s CDMA and LTE infrastructure units have been pursued by all the usual suspects — Nokia Siemens and Ericsson, just to name a couple — plus some unusual ones like fellow Canadian company RIM. That party appears to be drawing to a close, though, with Ericsson emerging victorious to the tune of $1.13 billion. Ericsson apparently has a vision that adding Nortel’s bits will help it expand its North American footprint, and it thinks it’ll be keeping about 80 percent of the existing staff on board to do so; first, of course, the deal has to actually close, which will happen later in the year if everything goes according to plan.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Ericsson scores Nortel’s CDMA and LTE assets with $1.13B bid originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, Windows Mobile

As you know, compelling pics of the X2 have been making the scene for quite some time now, and thanks to the gang at Mobile Bulgaria we can add a few more to the collection. Held up next to its predecessor for comparison, the newer model does indeed look like its more of the same, but for what looks like an improved keyboard (can’t wait to put it through its paces) and a thinner form factor — although the most exciting changes are taking place under the hood. Unless, of course, the rumored OLED display comes to pass — that would be most excellent! Hit that read link to see the newest pics in all their glory.

XPERIA X2 appears next to his sibling in a charming family photo originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS, HSUPA, Android

We don’t take the word of just any retailer at face value, but when a big player like eXpansys decides that it’s time to list a new phone in its inventory, that usually means something’s afoot. The company’s British outpost has now listed full details for a phone it’s identifying simply as “Xperia” in its headline, but if you read further in, you’ll see that the product code is “SEMXP3_BLK_UK”, suggesting X3 is the likely moniker for the Rachael-powered Android set. For your hard-earned (but yet-to-be-determined) money, you’ll get pretty much everything you could possibly want, spec-wise: 10Mbps HSDPA and 2Mbps HSUPA, 8 megapixel cam with image stabilization and LED flash, 3.5mm headphone jack, a 4-inch 800 x 400 display (a first at this resolution for a production Android device), AGPS, and microSDHC expansion. Sadly, it’s listed as 900 / 2100 only for the 3G radio, so we’ll need to rely on the telecommunication gods (and Sony Ericsson, we suppose) to deliver a North American version as well.

[Via Slashgear and the::unwired]

Sony Ericsson’s Android-powered XPERIA X3 sorta confirmed by way of retailer originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that Sony Ericsson’s most recent quarter loss is not as bad as its epic $382 million tab prior, and at this point there’s no talk of further en masse job cuts. That said, this new report isn’t exactly sunshine, and the Q2 results show a 213 million Euro ($299 million) net loss. Product shipments were around 13.8 million, down 43 percent compared with last year. Some blame is attributed to the focus on mid-tier feature phones in lieu of a greater smartphone push — SE says it’s working to correct that direction, but its higher end devices won’t hit until fourth quarter. One interesting note is that one of those late-year handhelds is said to “integrate with PlayStation,” but before you get excited over the oft-rumored PSP phone, we’d venture to say it’s more likely that description’s referencing the Remote Play-supporting Aino. From what we can tell, there’s no indication of what’s in the cards to improve Q3, so we won”t exactly be surprised if the story repeats itself three months from now.

Sony Ericsson posts $299 million Q2 2009 loss, PlayStation-integrated phone (probably Aino) coming Q4 originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sprint

As rumored, Sprint has now announced that it’s signed a blockbuster deal to outsource maintenance of its network to Ericsson. Spanning seven years and some $4.5 to $5 billion, the deal’s actually so big that Sprint has come up with a catchy name to describe it — “Network Advantage” — with about 6,000 Sprint employees being transferred to a new Ericsson subsidiary headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas (conveniently close to Sprint’s campus). In theory, the move won’t have any noticeable effect on customers because everyone involved with the customer experience on Sprint’s end (read: CS reps) will be retained by Sprint proper; Ericsson will simply be responsible for maintaining and provisioning the carrier’s CDMA and iDEN infrastructure. The deal kicks off this quarter and will be renewable after the seven-year contract’s up, so if you’re on Sprint, you can definitely expect to feel progressively more Swedish as time goes on, probably ultimately culminating in the impulse purchase of a Saab.

Sprint completes network maintenance deal with Ericsson originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, Windows Mobile

We’ve already seen Sony Ericsson’s supposed next-gen Windows Mobile device in the wild a couple times, but there’s one way we haven’t seen it yet: as a sketch. Danish site mobil.nu appears to have stumbled upon engineering drawings that detail the XPERIA X2 from every conceivable angle, showing that it faithfully carries over the shapely slider curve made famous by its predecessor; the mesh on either end is an interesting design detail, too, but otherwise, nothing new has really been revealed here. If anyone notices a microprint release date buried somewhere in these lovely pictures, though, do let us know, alright?

[Via mobile-review]

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 drawings tell the tale from every angle originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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