The occasional scrivener

The triumphant return of Sony Ericsson

A few years ago, Ericsson was losing it in the mobile handset space.

The phones it produced were technically excellent, but lacked the styling and ease of use of Nokia’s handsets. Finally Ericsson faced it’s failings and teamed up with Sony to form Sony Ericsson.

One of the first phones was the T68, later upgraded to the T68i. This phone was criticised for being slow, but had excellent Bluetooth support and quickly became a popular business choice. It also had a rudimentary email client.

Early last year, S-E released the T610. This trend-setting cameraphone set the stage for the triumphant return of Sony Ericsson. The combination of camera, large colour screen, snappy styling, email, and polyphonic ringtones made this a very popular phone choice. In Sweden, where I live, it’s not unusual to see 12-year olds with T610s.

The T610 was followed by the Z600, the T630, and now the K700, all upgrading the basic concept. Meanwhile, Nokia has stumbled, arguably missing the cameraphone trend and perhaps pushing the smartphone concept a little too hard.

At my workplace, a medium-sized tech company in Stockholm, the T610 “family” of phones is predominant. As a support engineer, I can attest that it fits our profile very well. The email client especially is appreciated by our sales force. And the ability to sync contacts and calender with MS Outlook is also a plus. Bluetooth support is excellent, and infra-red connectivity is included as a matter of course. The UI is colourful and stylish, although texting and text input is still slow.

For us, and for many other people, the latest S-E phones are “smart enough”. The additional bulk and complexity of Nokia’s Symbian smartphones can’t compete with S-E sleek styling.

Smartphones will remain a niche product for a few more years, but eventually, mid-level phones from S-E and others will gradually approach their functionality from below.

Posted at 21:27, in the comm » mobile category. Comments [0]
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