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Ericsson says Sony logical buyer for SE stake |
goldenface
Joined: Dec 17, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Liverpool City Centre
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Ericsson says Sony logical buyer for SE stake
HELSINKI, May 7 (Reuters) - Ericsson chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg said partner Sony would be a 'logical buyer' for Ericsson's half of handset making joint venture SonyEricsson, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
Steep losses from the venture have spurred investor talk the parents were agonising over the future of their offspring.
However, both companies told the paper they were ready to inject more money into the venture if needed.
Sony Ericsson, the world's fifth largest cellphone maker, is suffering from its strong focus on music and camera phones, which have been hurt the most in the economic downturn, and it has said it would focus more on top-end smartphones.
Sony Ericsson said in April it would stick to its plans to use three different operating systems -- Symbian, Google Android and Microsoft Windows Mobile -- to make smartphones.
In the midst of recession and shrinking cellphone demand its three-way bet is seen as too costly in the market and Sony Ericsson's chief Hideki Komiyama told the Financial Times the company may cut the number.
Komiyama hinted Microsoft's position would be unsure on the list, calling X1, its only Microsoft phone so far, 'a kind of experiment'.
Sony Ericsson has benefited over the years from Sony's Walkman and Cybershot brands and Komiyama said also gaming phones, using Playstation brand, 'could happen'.
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se_dude
Joined: Nov 07, 2007
Posts: > 500
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A PS phone with proper specs would kill the competition. It wont get bigger than that. |
goldenface
Joined: Dec 17, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Liverpool City Centre
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It would be good to see a ps phone but I can't see it coming anytime soon. The PSP go is rumoured to be around the corner and I doubt any incarnation of a PS Phone could compliment it.
Whats interesting is the hint that WM for Xperia might be dropped, leaving Symbian and Android for future Xperias.
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anonymuser
Joined: Dec 17, 2002
Posts: > 500
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Dropping WM makes a lot of sense, its popularity is fading even in the US market and its the only one of the OS's with licensing costs still attached to it.
I'm guessing the X1 probably counts as a failed experiment, by now.
I think if I was them, I'd try and be the brand that really makes its mark with Android. There's scope there to do something original with the OS and make it a lot more fun and desirable than the generic HTC slabs have been to date.
With Symbian they'll always be in thrall to Nokia, and lending very valuable support to S60 that it really doesn't deserve. Now is the time to break away and ditch the old Symbian dream along with the memory of UIQ - but obviously with the Idou still limping down the pipe, they're not about to do that.
[ This Message was edited by: Boinng on 2009-05-07 12:50 ] |
carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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I think SE would be mad to quit on SF considering the world's biggest handset maker is underwriting it. SE shouldn't put all their eggs in the Android basket; Android hasn't taken off yet nor is it showing signs of taking Europe by storm. |
anonymuser
Joined: Dec 17, 2002
Posts: > 500
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I see Android as a blank sheet, something of a fresh start, which is what SE's beleaguered smartphone division needs right now. The fact that it hasn't taken off yet (but is also heavily backed by some big names) is exactly what makes it an opportunity right now. Nokia's involvement in SF isn't exactly a strength as far as SE are concerned, in fact its more evidence of their own weakness if anything.
I was the biggest fan of Symbian (and Epoc before that) back in the day, but I think it's a spent force now. It carries too much baggage, and the politics around it are too entrenched. More importantly, developers don't like it, and the competition has shown that it's app developers who really make a platform. Android has some buzz around it, while Symbian simply has Nokia's money.
[ This Message was edited by: Boinng on 2009-05-07 13:22 ] |
Tsepz_GP
Joined: Dec 27, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: Johannesburg, South Africa
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 They should just stick to both Symbian and Android, release a phone with the P990s design and Idou specs running S60v5, and mid-range smartphones with Android. 
Phone: iPhone 15 Pro Max Black Ti 512GB
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Droid: Huawei Mate 40 Pro 256GB |
Dups!
Joined: Sep 24, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: GMT +2
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On 2009-05-07 14:13:32, Boinng wrote:
I see Android as a blank sheet, something of a fresh start, which is what SE's beleaguered smartphone division needs right now. The fact that it hasn't taken off yet (but is also heavily backed by some big names) is exactly what makes it an opportunity right now...
[ This Message was edited by: Boinng on 2009-05-07 13:22 ]
Agree completely! As for Symbian, there is potential in terms of sales for them to ditch it. The following that is attached to symbian is massive albeit Nokia-centric, the question is how do they plan to attack Nokia and Samsung on this.
The news of them contemplating 2 OSs doesn't come as a surprise to me, just yesterday I predicted them going with 2 OSs on the Xperia 2 thread.
It's not what you do or even how you do it but in what state of mind you do it: Dups! 2009 |
Mizzou
Joined: Dec 10, 2008
Posts: 69
From: Trnava, Slovakia
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While the SE to get Samsung, LG and Nokia are in sight .. ceases to believe in better times the SE, even if it's my favorite brand.. SE presents a new model for it, wait half a year, Samsung - LG - Nokia introduces a new model a month you can buy
[ This Message was edited by: Mizzou on 2009-05-07 15:06 ] |
Bonovox
Joined: Apr 13, 2008
Posts: > 500
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Yes its such a shame i wanna see SE my fave brand bounce back. From what i know Windows Mobile OS is slow and just crap. Am i right? Is the X1 a failure?
Phone?? What phone?? |
AbuBasim
Joined: Nov 04, 2005
Posts: > 500
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On 2009-05-07 20:10:00, Bonovox wrote:
From what i know Windows Mobile OS is slow and just crap. Am i right?
Depends on what you're comparing WM with. It's definitely faster than S60. Crap? How do you measure that?
Is the X1 a failure?
Not within the XDA-Dev's WM community. The HTC Kovski is currently in the top in their poll over the best HTC device ever.
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Tsepz_GP
Joined: Dec 27, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: Johannesburg, South Africa
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How is WM "faster" than S60? |
Bonovox
Joined: Apr 13, 2008
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I cant remember where i read it but someone said the X1 was doomed to fail. I like the X1 though. |
AbuBasim
Joined: Nov 04, 2005
Posts: > 500
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S60 has never been known for being a 'speed daemon'.
Comparing the speed of the UI and the bundled applications I would say the WM devices I have owned (i-mate JASJAM, HTC TyTN II) were faster than the S60 devices I currently own (E61i, E90).
If you on the other hand ignore speed and compare functionality instead then you get the opposite result...
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anonymuser
Joined: Dec 17, 2002
Posts: > 500
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For the boss to be describing the X1 as an "experiment" more than six months after the phone's release is pretty damning. It's supposed to be the flagship, I'm sure the shareholders wish the word he'd been looking for to describe it was "success", not experiment. If it was an experiment then at this stage, six months down the line, the experiment must be nearly complete. What was the result?
I know there's a poll on XDA-Devs which rates the X1 highly, but in fairness to XDA-Devs, that's a site devoted to hardcore WM developers and people looking to mod their WM phones (specifcally HTC manufactured ones like the X1) - it's not exactly a good measure of popularity in the wider phone market.
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Posted: 2009-05-07 11:25
