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Sony Ericsson Plans More Specialized Phones
After an enthusiastic consumer reaction to Walkman-branded cell phones, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications is planning more handsets that are focused around a single, major feature, the company’s president said in an interview in Tokyo this week.
The company put its first Walkman handset on sale in August 2005. Several more models, all of which have more of an emphasis on music than a conventional handset, have followed and sold "way beyond our expectations," said Miles Flint. From launch to the end of 2005 the company sold 3 million Walkman handsets and sales in the first quarter of this year totaled 2.5 million phones.
In designing the phones the company sought to leverage the power of Sony’s Walkman brand name, which despite being bruised by competition from Apple Computer’s iPod is still very widely associated with portable music.
"We are trying to build our reputation on being the leader in mobile music and it seems to be working," said Flint.
The brand name gives Sony Ericsson an advantage over its competitors, he said.
"If you look at the other four handset makers I’m not sure any have been able to establish a brand with their phones that make them stand out as music devices. Motorola clearly had the first attempt to link up with Apple and it seems initially that hasn’t proved hugely successful and with the other three it isn’t clear how they can brand their phones to make them stand out to consumers," he said.
"If Sony hadn’t let us use Walkman -- and there was never any doubt they wouldn’t -- it would have been much more difficult," said Flint.
The phones are also being well received by carriers, he said. Over-the-air downloads help drive usage of networks and increase revenues so mobile music is an area in which many network operators are interested, he said. Sony Ericsson is finding the same with two other lines of phones it plans to push this year.
The K800, launched earlier this year, is the first model to borrow another famous Sony brand name: Cybershot. Flint said its digital still camera functions are a notch above other handsets and the phone includes a link with Google’s Blogger service that allows users to quickly upload photos and messages to their blogs. It’s another example of a handset more tightly focused than a traditional model and also something operators are welcoming because it drives up data traffic, he said.
Sony Ericsson’s third area of interest this year, after Walkman and Cybershot handsets, is Blackberry-enabled models for the business and corporate market, he said.
"Most operators say our phones are among the biggest ARPU drivers," he said, referring to the industry abbreviation for average revenue per user.
As new handsets come out users are likely to see more phones that combine several functions but are tuned to one primary use, Flint said.
"I don’t think we’re heading to the Swiss Army knife that does everything," he said. He likened the handset market to the digital camera market, where video cameras can take still images and still cameras can do video but no single device does both very well.
As for the future of mobile music and the much-rumored iPod phone, Flint said it could be good for Sony Ericsson’s business if such a device is developed.
"If there was one, it would probably accelerate the whole music on mobile [market]," he said. "With the head-start we’ve got, I think we can compete with anyone else whoever they may be."
-Martyn Williams, IDG News Service.
What I got from the article was that handsets will be designed tuned in to one major feature" e.g either imaging, music or business.
This means that one killer handset doesn't seem to be on the horizon.
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Posted: 2006-05-25 15:11:03
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That all makes perfect sense from a strategic business point of view.
However, the only way phones can realistically compete with the iPOD and other specialised music devices is by including more memory. At present they aren't even on a par with the iPOD Nano in that department.
Camera phones, on the other hand, are likely to be more popular sellers because they are so useful in so many circumstances and don't need as much storage space.
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Posted: 2006-05-25 16:47:43
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Well the W850i is coming with 1gb memory so that a start
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Posted: 2006-05-25 17:47:00
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Well I had this discussion the other night with a mate of mine.
He was saying that although it is nice to be able to store your entire music collection on a 40gb iPod, for most people 10-15 albums or 150 tracks is enough for passing the time of day - he's after a W810i.
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Posted: 2006-05-25 17:58:14
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Yeah but an ipod is also an external hd, thats why the mem is so big
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Posted: 2006-05-25 19:04:12
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So if SE are really happy with with their "specialised" phones in the walkman for music, cybershot branded phones for photography and the buisness P series phones, what are the chances of expanding their diversity to a gaming orientated phone based upon a PSP?? Maybe a wild far fetched idea but what an addition to a range of phones it would be!
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Posted: 2006-05-26 00:30:50
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I think it's also great that they do specialized phones, but they shouldn't forget the 'swiss knive' phone, considering they get very popular and sell well too. cheers.
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Posted: 2006-05-26 03:42:14
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the w800 was what got me interested in phones again. now i'm utterly disappointed that SE's changing its route.
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Posted: 2006-05-26 07:12:04
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no theyre not.. theyre makin another one... so.. why the long face? this a nature of this business.
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Posted: 2006-05-26 07:16:53
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It pains me when I look at the K800 and see that the only difference between it being an excellent Walkman phone (in addition to camera phone), is software.
SE has withheld Walkman Player 2.0 from this model for the very annoying reason outlined in the above article. It would cost nothing extra, no extra hardware or otherwise to bring these camera phones up to the Walkman standard, but SE choose against this.
Why on earth do posts sometimes go to really small text when edited?
_________________
T65> K700i> K750i> Mars.
[ This Message was edited by: jasond on 2006-05-26 06:58 ]
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Posted: 2006-05-26 07:27:32
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