Sony Ericsson Saw $384m Losses in Q1 of 2009 and Planning to Cut 2000 Jobs

Sony Ericsson has announced that the company would cut 200 more jobs due to company’s continuous losses in the global mobile phone market. The decision of further job cut came in the wake of reports regarding the company’s losses of 293 million euros (384 million dollars) in the first quarter of the current fiscal year coming to the media. Sony Ericsson experienced heavy losses in the third and the fourth quarters of the last year too.

Due to economic recession, demand for mobile handset has been decreased significantly in the major mobile phone markets over the last one year. Naturally, Sony Ericsson is now experiencing the impact of the global economic slowdown. So, the company is trying to cut jobs in its bid to decrease costs. Well, I think, cutting jobs is not enough for bringing the company into profitability. Sony Ericsson should now focus on cheap, small-priced mobile phone market, in stead of focusing much on high-end users. If Sony Ericsson can come up with a couple of small-priced mobile handsets and grab a significant market share in the price-sensitive large markets like India, then the company can come out of losses.

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New iPhone will take away major South Korean market share from LG and Samsung

No matter how they label their new products, ‘iPhone hunters,’ ‘iPhone killers,’ Samsung Electronics Corporation (SEO: 005935)and LG, two of the largest mobile phone producing companies of South Korea will face tough competition from the new Apple iPhone 3G.

According to the data of Strategy Analytics, till now, LG enjoyed a sales growth four times higher than the industry average in South Korea and Samsung two times. Now, after the release of new iPhone model at a low subsidized price could take away major market share of LG and Samsung in South Korea.

Yankee Group analyst, John Jackson, said that you would not need an analyst to tell you that a low subsidized price for the most-anticipated gadget ever was going to move huge amounts of iPhones in finite number of channels through which they would sell. It would hurt the Korean producers in key high-end segments.

Not only Samsung and LG but other major mobile phone companies like Motorola (NYSE:MOT) and Sony Ericsson are also expected to face a tough competition against the new iPhone. The latest model Apple iPhone 3G offers phone, iPod media player, web browser and faster internet access on advanced wireless networks. The Apple iPhone 3G will cost $199. From Jully 11, it would hit the market. According to Jae Lee, Daiwa Securities analyst, now it would be the best time for Korean makers to trim the fat from their cell-phone prices or else, they would not stand a chance in front of the iPhone.

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Sony Ericsson W380i Mobile Phone Review

Sony Ericsson has recently launched W380i walkman mobile phone. It is specially designed for using walkman and the mobile set has some other attractive features as well. Sony Ericsson is one of the market leaders of the global mobile phone market. The company has a number of winner mobile sets in the past and it has a strong brand value in the market.

• With W380i model phone, Sony Ericsson is trying to popularize the walkman phone to the mobile phone users. Here, I am giving some features of Sony Ericsson W380i handset:

• It does not have an exclusive design, but it looks as attractive as other typical Sony Ericsson mobile phones.

• Sony Ericsson W380i sports a letterbox shaped OLED screen. Well, the users can not see the screen until they get into music options of the phone or until an incoming call or SMS come to be appeared in the OLED screen.

• Users can also get to know who are trying to make contact with them in this phone. Sony Ericsson W380i handset has some touch buttons that provide with a good control over its music function.

• The back part of the casing is used as a lock for the touch buttons.

• Another exciting feature of Sony Ericsson W380 handset is the gesture control by which you can dismiss a call just by waving your hands. How? Well, there is a light under the lens of the camera and that light turns on whenever an incoming call comes or the previously set alarms gets to be ringing. If your hand is within 7cm of the light, you just need to waive your hand over the light to dismiss either the call or the alarm.

• Sony Ericsson W380i mobile phone measures 92mm tall, 49mm wide and 16mm thick with 100g of weigh, which is also a good advantage for the users to carry the mobile easily.

Sony Ericsson is a joint venture of Japanese electronics company Sony Corporation and Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson. After the two company came together to produce mobile phone in 2001, both the companies gave away producing their own brand of mobile phone. No doubt, there are a few features in Sony Ericsson W380i which I think, could easily be very attractive among the mobile phone users. Now, let us see if Sony Ericsson W380i phone set brings out huge success for the joint venture mobile phone company.

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Sony Ericsson W960i Review

Sony Ericsson is one of the top mobile phone companies in the world. The main feature of Sony Ericsson’s mobile phone sets is that each of the models emphasize on one criteria: picture, music, smart phone for businessmen. If you are a camera freak then the ideal buy for you is the Sony Ericsson cyber-shot. The Sony Ericsson music phones have great sound quality and multimedia features. The earlier smart phones of Sony Ericsson were not so powerful and the flaws in the Wi-Fi chipset was a big disaster. The Sony Ericsson W960i has gotten rid of all these problems. The phone set was first announced in June 2007 and came in the market in late November. The price of the phone is less than $600 but it can rise upto $800 based on the location. Here is a review of Sony Ericsson W960i.

Dimension:
Breadth: 16mm (0.6")
Width: 55mm (2.2")
Length: 109mm (4.3")
Weight: 119g

The Sony Ericsson W960i looks like a black candy bar. This trim handset nicely fits in one hand. A sleek looking phone but sturdy as well. The keypad of Sony Ericsson W960i makes a little clicking noise while you use it. The Sony Ericsson W960i has everything you can expect from a smart phone. Mobileburn says:

The W960i offers a bevy of hardware buttons, though not the ones you would normally expect from a smartphone. The front of the device features a regular numeric keypad, with a back button, Walkman button, and 'c', or clear button taking up the top row. Between the screen and the keypad are three dedicated media playback keys. These are touch-sensitive and are only active when you have the Walkman application open. The right side of the W960 houses the volume up/down buttons, as well as the camera shutter key. There is an extremely handy scroll wheel on the left side of the handset, which you can press in to select items. The power button is on top, and there is a proprietary Sony Ericsson plug at the bottom of the handset.

The Sony Ericsson W960i comes with 2.6" QVGA touchscreen. You may not feel comfortable while using the buttons on the touch screen. The display is very good but you can not see it under direct sunlight. You will find a front facing video camera on the top left corner of the display for video calling and the 3.2 megapixel camera is located on the back. The main camera comes with dual-LED flash. The loud speaker of Sony Ericsson W960i is located on the back slightly below the camera. The Sony Ericsson W960i comes with a stylus which is kept along the edge of the phone, near the speaker. The stylus looks like a plastic toothpick that you find in Swiss army knives.

The Sony Ericsson W960i can be a great music companion. It comes with so many easy to use features. It has a built in Walkman music player, music playlist. The album art can be displayed on the touch screen. The built in FM radio supports RDS that allows the user to listen to their favourite radio stations and view information. One of the major features of Sony Ericsson W960i is TrackID. Powered by Gracetone, the TrackID allows the listener to record few seconds of the song they like. The music then sent to TrackID comes back with title, artist name/band name and album name. Your mobile phone review further says:

The W960i comes with a music PlayNow™ feature which allows the user to buy or audition ringtones in three simple clicks of a key which is the fastest way for the user to download the latest ringtones onto their phone. The phone supports MP3, polyphonic & AAC ringtones which provides the user with a wide choice of sound on their handset. The user can enjoy a wireless music experience by using the Bluetooth® stereo A2DP connectivity which is available on this stylish music phone. The user can use the Mega Bass™ feature allows the user to enjoy high quality bass frequencies through the phones speakers or when using the headphones. The Sony Ericsson W960i comes complete with Disc2Phone software which allows the user to enjoy a drag & drop music transfer from their CD's to their handset.

The Sony Ericsson W960i is truly a 3G phone. It has 3G video call facility with any 3G video calling compatible user. The Sony Ericsson W960i also provides Bluetooth facility, WLAN and USB. You can connect the phone with any other compatible device to transfer or download files through Bluetooth or USB connection. The WLAN will give internet facility. The phone works under various mobile network structure such as, GSM 900, 1800, 1900 & UMTS 2100. Softpedia says:

Sony Ericsson W960i runs on a Symbian 9.1 OS with UIQ 3.0 platform, which is similar to P1i's platform. It features the same interface, but fortunately not the same latency. What was annoying when using SE's P1i smarpthone, the slow processing speed of the interface and the long responding commands, doesn't happen onto this new W960i handset. And when multi-tapping the screen gets you no results, you just have to wait, and wait, and then wait some more. Don't get me wrong, Sony Ericsson W960i smartphone is not a speedy handset, but it's nowhere near P1i.

Overall, 8GB memory, walkman player, autofocus camera with dual-LED lights, and Wi-Fi makes the Sony Ericsson W960i one the best music phones from Sony Ericsson but the keypad lighting, back button, audio port, and low battery life can become real headache.

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