The long-rumoured – and frequently leaked – Sony Xperia S was finally revealed at CES 2012. In addition to finally being confirmed by Sony, the Android smartphone now has an official UK release date, as well as pricing guidance.

Release date

The Xperia S will be available from 5 March onwards, and is priced at £429.99 Sim-free, reports TechRadar. The handset will be available from O2, Three, T-Mobile and Orange, while Phones4U will also exclusively retail the white version of the otherwise black handset. Vodafone seems to have given the phone a pass for the time being.

Why you should care

The handset has a notable design, with the thick bottom bezel piece with XPERIA engraved across it, separated by a thin silver strip where the Android buttons rest. This gives the phone a unique, immediately recognisable look.
The Sony Xperia S is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor so performance should not be an issue. The handset has an LCD HD display that spans 4.3-inches, which is fast becoming the ‘new’ smartphone display size standard. It has a high-resolution 12-megapixel camera that sports an Exmor R lens. It can also record 720p video, which can be played on a television directly from the phone through the built-in micro-HDMI port on the handset.

The handset has been built around Google’s Android Gingerbread mobile OS, with Sony committing to update it to Ice Cream Sandwich after release.

Is it enough?

I like the Sony Xperia S, especially its design, which is saying a lot considering the general homogeneity of most contemporary smartphones. With the impressive camera, mobile photography fans would do well to consider it for their next purchase, too, as would any other users looking to purchase an Android device. With Mobile World Congress at the end of February, Sony runs the risk of having some of its thunder stolen by what other manufacturers release there.

The writing has been on the wall for some time, and rumours gathered plenty of steam in recent weeks – Sony is buying Ericsson out of the Sony Ericsson joint venture for $1.47bn (£913m).

Logical step – Ericsson

In the press release announcing the deal, Ericsson President Hans Vestberg takes a very pragmatic view about being bought out of the decade-long joint venture. He says: ‘Ten years ago when we formed the joint venture, thereby combining Sony’s consumer products knowledge with Ericsson’s telecommunication technology expertise, it was a perfect match to drive the development of feature phones. 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.’

It’s a logical step in that it will allow Sony to behave much like Apple and Amazon does with its products, integrating hardware with media services. Unlike Apple and Amazon, though, Sony is actually a content owner, too, and not just a content distributor, through its ownership of Sony Music and Sony Pictures. Not to say Sony will necessarily exploit this opportunity fully, but it would be silly if they did not.

The next phase – Sony

Speaking on the Sony Ericsson JV buyout, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer’s words echo our sentiment, saying: ‘This acquisition makes sense for Sony and Ericsson, and it will make the difference for consumers, who want to connect with content wherever they are, whenever they want. 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.’ This four-screen strategy being televisions, smartphones, tablets and laptops.

What’s next?

Ericsson says it will focus on its core business of being a mobile communications infrastructure company. Sony, however, have the opportunity to show up to the mobile devices war with serious heat at both a hardware, and media services level. Insofar as the mobile OS platform they’re building on top of is solid, there’s very little reason they can’t be one of the top three players in the mobile devices industry.

Sony Ericsson’s shift to a smartphone only handset maker will be completed in 2012, the company announced on Friday. Though SE CEO Bert Nordberg had previously alluded to a shift to high-end handsets in a recent interview, this is the first time the company has publically stated the intent.

What’s changing?

Sony Ericsson said it planned on shifting all of its production capacity to smartphones throughout 2012. After a period marred with losses, the firm last week reported profits of 31 million euros, which was higher than even analyst forecasts. This is no doubt attributable to strong sales of the Sony Ericsson Xperia line of Android smartphones, which come with a higher sticker price than feature phones, as well as better profit margins, too.

Bert hinted at this

This is not the first time Sony Ericsson smartphone only ambitions have come to light. During a far-reaching interview with the Wall Street Journal, SE CEO Bert Nordberg said: ‘By now, some 70% of our sales stem from smartphones and some time in the middle of next year, I estimate that we will be a complete smartphone company.’

Will Ericsson play along?

Outside of this change, though, there’ve also been murmurings of Sony buying out Ericsson in their mobile devices joint venture. At surface level, this makes sense, since it means that SE can be fully integrated into Sony’s own content library – spanning films, music and video games – which could make Sony Ericsson handsets more attractive than some of the company’s higher ranking rivals. Whether Ericsson sees a sale in the joint as a sensible business move is a completely different matter.

So fans of the classic Sony Ericsson feature phones that helped define a generation somewhat, times are changing. Oh, and in case it wasn’t already obvious, feature phones are running on borrowed times, as more affordable smartphones start reaching the market, and consumers demand more of what their handsets can do.

As technologies biggest players are all shaping up to make a play for the highly lucrative and highly competitive mobile devices market, it goes without saying that industry consolidation is inevitable. Reports have emerged that Sony is trying to buyout Ericsson in their Sony Ericsson JV, with the intent of assuming full control of the smartphone unit.

Months in the making

The report comes from Reuters, who were citing a source that had ‘direct knowledge of the matter’. What’s more, this is not the first time this has been mentioned, with a different source having told the publication that Sony Ericsson takeover talks had gotten under way as far back as June prior to the ending of the contract between the two firms later this month.

Elsewhere others report that Sony has made several attempts over recent years to take full control of the Sony Ericsson joint venture with little success. Part of that reason is attributable to the business being highly competitive in the space. Now, with much uncertainty about how Sony Ericsson will successfully navigate the new cutthroat smartphone market, where winners take all, it’s thought that this could be the very best opportunity Sony has had to pounce and follow through.

What do you think?

When approached for comment, both Sony and Ericsson refused to comment on the speculation. Nevertheless, the Sony Ericsson JV has recently been in the news much more than we’ve seen it all year after Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg’s far-reaching interview with the Wall Street Journal.  And therein he revealed that SE would be an exclusively smartphone company in the near future, since: ‘some 70% of our sales stem from smartphones and some time in the middle of next year, I estimate that we will be a complete smartphone company’. Given the margins and profit figures available for the ‘winner’ of the smartphone battle, it’s no surprise the Japanese titan wants to control the units destiny.

With Android handset manufacturers being sued from all angles, especially by Microsoft who have managed to extract a healthy patent licensing fee out of several manufacturers who make phones Google’s Android platform, there’s one major Android manufacturer that has remained litigation free, mostly – Sony Ericsson. The mobile phones manufacturer insists that this will remain this way for some time still, given the immense strength of its patent library, which is covered by all Sony patents, all Ericsson patents, and Sony Ericsson patents.

We’re not scared

Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg said: ‘Right now this industry is in the midst of the largest patent war that I have ever experienced.’ He added that: ‘Ours is one of the most patent safe companies around. Apart from our own 6,000 patents, we’re licensed to use the combined patent portfolios of both our owners, Sony and Ericsson,’.

Bring it, Microsoft, Apple

This, more than anything else, is a signal of strength from Sony Ericsson to Microsoft and Apple. After Microsoft announced that it had entered into a patent licensing agreement with Samsung over the company’s handsets that run on Google’s Android mobile OS platform, Goldman Sachs estimated that Microsoft was on course to make $444 million (£288m) revenue in fiscal year 2012 on Android patent license agreement. Of that total, it was estimated that Samsung alone was contributing $180 million.

While sales of Sony Ericsson Xperia phones have been solid, they have not been as big as that of Samsung’s Galaxy S sales. This might be erroneously thought to be the reason why Microsoft has not targeted SE, with recently signed patent licensing agreements with smaller Android vendors being evidence that no fish is too small for the big M to fry.

The strong Sony Ericsson patent portfolio means it is not going to be sued anytime soon. Perhaps more pressingly, though, the company needs to figure out how to return to its past glory days.

As recently as 2007, Apple had zero presence in the smartphone market, but the launch of the iPhone caught all of its competitors completely unawares. Now, in an interesting interview with the Wall Street Journal, the CEO of the struggling mobile phone manufacturer admits his team should have been wearier of Apple’s arrival in the space.

Smartphone the future, Apple sort of own that future

Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg said that his company ‘should have taken the iPhone more seriously when it arrived in 2007.’ That, however, is water under the bridge, though, with Nordberg insisting that smartphones were the company’s future as it continued to divest in its future phone business. Citing the early success of the company’s Android strategy, as well as piggy-backing on the growth of the platform, Nordberg says that ‘By now, some 70% of our sales stem from smartphones and some time in the middle of next year, I estimate that we will be a complete smartphone company.’

Cautiously interested in Windows Phone 7

Speaking about Windows Phone 7 and whether we would see Sony Ericsson smartphones running on Microsoft’s platform, Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg said: ‘At this point I wouldn’t feel comfortable investing in a platform that isn’t as good as the one that we currently use. Therefore we have remained with Android, but I am quite curious about Windows Phone.’

Ironically, if Windows Phone 7 were to experience a sudden meteoric rise, Sony Ericsson would not benefit from it. This is not dissimilar to the company not being more vigilant of the iPhone when it first arrived in 2007, but, in Sony Ericsson’s defence, there is little event that Microsoft’s mobile OS platform will catch up with Android any time soon.

A return to relevance?

Sony Ericsson is one of the major mobile phone giants whose once shining star has lost some of its lustre next to the HTCs, iPhones and Galaxy S phones leading the industry today. It will be interesting to see if the company is able to return to its past glory days over the next few years.

A recent brands survey has named Sony the ‘most valued’ brand in Asia. This means the Japanese consumer electronics giant beat out other technology giants like Canon, LG, Panasonic and Samsung for the top spot.

Ashes and fire

Though the Japanese company has had a torrid time in 2011 on the heels of the Sony PSN hack, that has had very little effect on how folks in Asia perceive the brand. The survey, which was conducted by market research firm TNS, had 3,300 respondents who, overall, deemed Sony the brand that held the most value for them.

Regular people don’t care for luxury

What’s interesting about surveys like this, where the term ‘valuable’ is used, is what people attach value to. One would think luxury brands would rank high in this regard, but that is not the case. Atifa Hargrave-Silk of Haymarket Asia, the sponsors of the survey, said: ‘I think we often find it’s the everyday brands that come out on top in this survey,’ and that ‘It’s not a reflection of Asia’s love affair with luxury brands.’

Thomas Isaac, who is the commercial director at TNS, added that: ‘Luxury brands, by definition are not mass market products.’ He added that ‘In most Asian countries, the man on the street has not heard of Louis Vuitton, but he has heard of Sony.’

Winning against all odds

Heard of Sony we all have, and a lot recently. The fallout from the Sony PSN hack has no doubt damaged the company’s reputation around the globe, with North American and European media covering the event and what followed it extensively. The findings of this brand survey, however, confirm that for highly established companies with massive reach, even the most desperate consumer-corporate slip up can be overcome. And ultimately it’s all products, right?

Between Sony Ericsson mobile devices, the PS3, and numerous other consumer electronic goods, it’s easy to overlook the Sony PSN hack as an unfortunate slip up.

Sony Ericsson has announced a pair of smartphones that seem targeted squarely at the teen market. The company used Facebook to announce the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro, and the Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman, both of which give away their main feature in their naming.

Pro texting

The first of the two, the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro, is for people who want to ‘text like pros,’ presumably. The sms-focused offering features a QWERTY slide-out keyboard, a 3-inch capacitive touch display and a 3.2MP camera. Taking a cue from the many handsets that are increasingly integrating social experiences as their core offering, the phone features a ‘friends app’, which lets you see what your Facebook and Twitter contacts are up to.

Pro listening

Unsurprisingly, the Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman is one of the handset manufacturer’s music-orientated offerings. It features a ‘Zappin’ key that lets you preview tracks before playing them back, making it that little bit easier to filter through the many songs you have that you may never have listened to before.

From a technical perspective, the device also features a 3-inch capacitive touch display, a camera and wi-fi connectivity, as well.

Price and release date

Both of these handsets will be released in Q3 2011. Next to the up-in-the-sky release date, neither of them have been officially priced either.

Given the massive focus on smartphones lately, it’s interesting to see Sony Ericsson make a play for the teen market again. What’s particularly interesting is, given that so many Android smartphones are released at increasingly cheaper price points, how long the idea of a ‘teen-focused’ handset will continue to exist. They want iPhones, BlackBerries and Sony Xperia handsets just like the rest of us. The only difference is they cannot afford them, for now.

We’ll see if the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro and the Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman fill the gap in the interim.

The effects of the Japan tsunami and earthquake are still being felt, both in the Asian tech capital and throughout the world. The latest technology company to admit that it is struggling to cope with supplies and component acquisition is Sony Ericsson.

The big boys are killing us

The company’s CEO, Bert Nordberg, announced that the mobile phone maker was suffering from a shortage of critical components, ranging from displays and batteries to camera modules and even printed circuit boards. What’s worse, especially for Sony Ericsson smartphones, is the group finds itself competing with bigger players for these very parts.

In an interview with Reuters, Nordberg said: ‘We are now fighting for parts with bigger players,’ confirming the advantage heavyweight companies like Apple, Samsung, HTC and Nokia have just due to their scale alone.

Slowing rollout

For Sony Ericsson, the Japan tsunami could not have come at a worse time. The company had introduced a bunch of new Sony Xperia smartphones, as well as begun shipping their Sony Xperia Play ‘Playstation phone’. Moreover, after years of slow sales, the company’s smartphone business – the most profitable business in all mobile devices – has begun gathering momentum off burgeoning Android sales. Now, in a sense, if the effects of the Japan tsunami are protracted, Sony Ericsson has to start again.

How consumers will be affected

While numerous companies and product lines, like the Sony Ericsson Xperia smartphones, have been dramatically effected by the Japan tsunami, it seems as if those costs have yet to be passed off to consumers. While we were bracing ourselves for an almost inevitable ‘price shock’, no such thing has come, and hopefully the industry will be able to navigate the storm without hurting our pockets, too.

In the interim, if you’re planning on buying a Sony Ericsson Xperia smartphone, especially a new release, it’s in your best interest to snap one up as soon as it becomes available.

UK carrier O2 has announced that it has delayed the release of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Player. The handset widely called the Playstation phone has software bugs in it that have meant that its planned release date of 1 April 2011 has been shifted back.

Performance is everything

Stuart Hibberd, who is the head of O2’s testing team, announced the news in a blog post. He wrote: ‘We’ve been testing the phone non-stop for weeks and have found some bugs in the software that, if they’re not fixed, means customers won’t have a great experience.’

Suggesting that the UK carrier always puts customers first, he added ‘We’ve been working with Sony Ericsson to get these bugs ironed out, but haven’t been able to get them fixed in time for us to be able to launch the phone on April 1st as we originally planned.’

The Playstation phone

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is the latest phone in the handset manufacturer’s growing Android lineup. Before it was announced, it was simply known as the Playstation phone, in that it is the first ‘Playstation-certified’ handset ever released, and gaming is a big focus of the experience. Not only does it come with six games pre-loaded when you purchase it, the handset’s design features a slide-out controller panel, as well as full touchscreen controls.

Strange strategy

Whether the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play handset will have much success is still up in the air. Not only does it try to fulfill to highly competitive functions – a top-end smartphone as well as a competitive handheld gaming system – it also has the burden of launching just after the Nintendo 3DS goes on sale around the world.

If you are an O2 customer waiting on the handset, your reward will be the ability to get the all-white Playstation phone, exclusive to the carrier in the UK. If however, you’re simply looking to get one of the many Google Android handsets, your options are growing at a fever pace.