Hasta La Gadget!

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that Sony Ericsson‘s most recent quarter loss is not as bad as its epic $382 million tab prior, and at this point there’s no talk of further en masse job cuts. That said, this new report isn’t exactly sunshine, and the Q2 results show a 213 million Euro ($299 million) net loss. Product shipments were around 13.8 million, down 43 percent compared with last year. Some blame is attributed to the focus on mid-tier feature phones in lieu of a greater smartphone push — SE says it’s working to correct that direction, but its higher end devices won’t hit until fourth quarter. One interesting note is that one of those late-year handhelds is said to “integrate with PlayStation,” but before you get excited over the oft-rumored PSP phone, we’d venture to say it’s more likely that description’s referencing the Remote Play-supporting Aino. From what we can tell, there’s no indication of what’s in the cards to improve Q3, so we won”t exactly be surprised if the story repeats itself three months from now.

Filed under: Cellphones

Sony Ericsson posts $299 million Q2 2009 loss, PlayStation-integrated phone (probably Aino) coming Q4 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While one could argue that Sony Ericsson should really be focusing its efforts on getting a Rachael / Android-based handset out on the double, it’s evidently content with digging up a year-old phone, slapping an “a” on the end of it and passing it along to AT&T. The 8.1 megapixel C905 that we were so jazzed about in June of 2008 has indeed been certified for AT&T as the C905a Cyber-shot (left and center), offering the same 8.1 megapixel sensor, face detection, AutoFocus, Xenon flash, GPS tagging and 3G support. In related news, SE is also offering up the 518a Walkman (shown right) on the same carrier, which features a 3.2 megapixel camera, an obsession with Facebook, Shake Control and OTA music downloads from Napster and eMusic via AT&T Music. Both sets will be available on July 19th for $179.99 and $49.99 (respectively) after mail-in rebate and a two-year agreement, which sounds “way too high” and “too high” to us (also respectively).

Filed under: Cellphones

Sony Ericsson hand delivers 8.1MP C905a and W518a Walkman to AT&T originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That supposedly upcoming Android XPERIA that Mobil dug up might have our minds, but it’s this leaked handset (which, to be fair, looks fairly sketchily rendered), the Sony Ericsson Kiki, that has won our hearts. The screen is made of glass, with an image seemingly rear-projected onto it (teleprompter style), while the keys are, um, scarce. Mobil was able to offer few hints as to how this works or what all it does, and it seems like it falls far short of the functionality of a feature phone, but we’re sure we want one whatever it is.

Filed under: Cellphones

Rumored Sony Ericsson “Kiki” handset isn’t a boring one originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As recently as May Sony has itself stated that a PSP phone “could happen,” and now a report from Nikkei business daily states that Sony is planning on putting together a team as early as next month to build product that would act as a combination of a PSP and a Sony Ericsson handset. It makes plenty of sense, both as a differentiation from Nintendo and as a confrontation of the looming iPhone threat — and hey, it might also act as a decent salve over the lukewarm reception of the pricey PSPgo. Unfortunately, if Sony is just about to get started on this, we likely wouldn’t be looking at any resulting product for a while to come. Sony declined comment according to Reuters, which doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it’s worth keeping in mind that we’ve been hearing this sort of rumoring since back when the N-Gage (as a product) was still almost relevant.

[Via Mac Rumors]

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds

Sony investigating PSP phone? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Ericsson’s official spokesperson, Maria Sharapova, was on hand recently to unveil a student-designed prototype of a Bluetooth-enabled dress. The iridescent scales that run up one side of the dress move and light up when the phone rings, enabling its owner to know about calls even in noisy places (so says the dress’s maker, Georgie Davies). Yes, it’s just a prototype for now, but it’s a pretty cute dress, so hopefully we’ll see these hit the streets at some point in the (nearish) future.

[Via Switched]

Filed under: Cellphones

Maria Sharapova models Bluetooth-enabled Sony Ericsson prototype dress originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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