Remember the other day, when I was talking about the new software (‘Media Go’) that Sony Ericson were releasing for their mobile phones? And I said that the software was being labelled as Sony only, and it didn’t have Ericson mentioned?
Well, one of my sources have heard rumours that the two companies, Sony (being a media giant) and Ericsson (being a sweedish network), are not having the best of times together anymore.
We have seen LG overtake them in the list of leading manufactorsin the world, and Sony Ericson sales have slumped (being a P1 fan, I am personally blaming this drop on their silly decision of cancelling the UIQ operating systems). The combination of all these factors are piling on the pressure and Sony Ericson now seem to bebuckling under it all.
I have gone through many Sony Ericsson phones in my time, and I think that they do have a large amount of dedicated fans. However, it is becoming more and more apparent that their phones are merging into one standard design these days (anyone remembering the disaster that was Sharpe yet?!)
When you buy a low cost device from Sony Ericson, you get a few less features but the exact same operating system as their end, all dancing all singing, devices. How does that work out?!
On the one hand, it is great as it makes the phones easier to switch between. However, when you have forked out a tidy sum, or signed your life away to some greedy network, for your nice shiny new phone, it does make it all seem a bit of a let down.
When you get a budget handset from Nokia, you get a simple basic menu system, designed for those who justwant to call and text, nothing flashy about it. But when you get a Nokia mid range phone, they all run on Symbian S40, bringing a nice style and look to the device. And of course for the Nokia feature handsets, they use the Symbian S60, giving the device more options and more things to play with on the OS. Nokia up the OS as you up the cost – this seems pretty fair to me!
But what Sony Ericson do not seem to understand is that people know all this! Gone are the days when people use phones they do not understand – phones are more common than DVD players and computers, with most familys having four or five phones in use in the house, and a couple of spares lying around as well.
Sony keep the same OS from one device to the next, and people see this as cheating, they don’t feel like they’re getting a better phone when they pay more for one.
People are asking themselves, “Is having reliable software, the exact same software on one device to the next, software that you know you can always use when you get the next phone at upgrade time, – is it really that worth it?”