Sony Ericsson to Make Windows Mobile Phones
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Under the deal with Microsoft, Sony Ericsson will produce the âX1,â a slider phone with a typwriter-style qwerty keyboard and touch screen.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft's recently announced Windows Mobile 6 software for smart phones is a step forward for the company, offering some important improvements over previous versions of the software. But just how good is the new software? On Thursday, Microsoft offered me the chance to play with Windows Mobile 6 ahead of the 3GSM show in Barcelona, Spain, next week. The short demonstration, which took place at Microsoft's office in Singapore, was done using a currently available handset: the High Tech ComputerÂ (HTC) S620 smart phone. The S620, also known by its code name Excalibur, sports a small QWERTY keypad, a 2.4-inch QVGA (320 pixels by 240 pixels) screen, and support for GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) networks. Powered by Texas Instruments' 200MHz OMAP 850 processor, the smart phone has 128MB of ROM and 64MB of DDR (double data rate) DRAM. But enough about the handset used for the demonstration. What about the software? At first glance, Microsoft's attempt to make Windows Mobile 6 look more like Vista has resulted in a better-looking piece of software, with a new font and a cleaner overall appearance. But the most important improvements to Windows Mobile 6 aren't cosmetic. For starters, Microsoft has added the ability for users to search e-mails and other information stored on Exchange Server 2007 from a smart phone. Windows Mobile 6 also allows users to configure their push mail settings and out-of-office notifications directly from their smart phone, instead of having to use their PCs. Previous versions of Windows Mobile for PDAs allowed users toÂ view Office documents, and that capability has now been added to the smart phone version of the software. In addition, users can now edit their documents. That feature may be useful for some Word and Excel documents, but I have a hard time believing anyone will be using Windows Mobile 6 to edit, or even view, PowerPoint presentations. The screens on these types of devices are just too small for this to be practical. Other improvements to Windows Mobile 6 include offering more information about the people on your contact list. Start typing the name of a contact, say "John" for example, and Windows Mobile 6 brings up a list of contacts named John. Clicking on any one of these names brings detailed information about the contact, including different phone numbers and e-mail addresses, as well as information about your last call -- or missed call -- with the contact. Microsoft also improved the browser and instant-messaging functions in Windows Mobile. For example, you can send text or voice messages to your MSN contacts, while chatting with several contacts simultaneously. If a contact doesn't respond, you can also send a "nudge," which causes the user's phone to vibrate, letting them know that they've received a message. Apart from these features, what struck me most about Windows Mobile 6 was its speed. The software seems much faster than previous versions. Applications opened instantly, without making the user wait. Overall, I was impressed by the newest version of Windows Mobile. Previous versions did not appeal to me, but the improved speed and added features mean Windows Mobile 6 is worth a closer look if you're in the market for a smart phone.
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Under the deal with Microsoft, Sony Ericsson will produce the âX1,â a slider phone with a typewriter-style qwerty keyboard and touch screen.
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InfoWorld - Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications will get its GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phones made in India by contract manufacturers, starting with entry-level color phones and mid-level phones with music.
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(InfoWorld) - Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications A.B. is setting up a research and development (R&D) unit for mobile phones in Chennai in south India. The handset maker announced earlier this year that it was outsourcing its manufacturing to the Chennai operations of Flextronics Corp. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., which uses the brand name Foxconn. By having R&D teams in India, the company will be better able to tap into consumer behavior in local markets, Sony Ericsson said Wednesday. A number of mobile phone vendors are setting up manufacturing, R&D centers, and network operating centers in India, both to take advantage of Indiaâs low-cost labor, and also to target Indiaâs booming mobile phone market. India added 6.57 million mobile telephony subscribers in May this year, taking the total number of subscribers to 178 million, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in Delhi. This mobile telephony boom has translated into heavy demand for mobile phones. Over 62 million handsets have been sold in India in the last 12 months, according to internal estimates by Sony Ericsson. The company is targeting production of 10 million phones from India by 2009. The new facility will become part of Sony Ericssonâs global network of R&D units, currently comprised of sites in China, Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands, the U.S. and the U.K. The company did not, however, provide details of staffing or the nature of the work to be done at the new R&D facility.
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Microsoft on announced it has inked a pact to put mobile versions of its Windows Live services onto handsets made by one of its chief competitors.
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Microsoft on Sunday night unveiled a deal with Sony (NYSE:SNE) Ericsson, which will see the Swedish-Japanese mobile handset maker use Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system in a new flagship handset to be launched later this year.
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(InfoWorld) - Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson will restructure and hire 500 more engineers to better meet demand for multimedia products and services, Ericsson's chief executive officer said Friday. Starting in 2007, Ericsson will reorganize into three units: networks, global services, and multimedia. The new engineers will primarily work in the multimedia group, and the bulk of them will be based in Sweden. The new group will help Ericsson better understand what types of multimedia services might become popular and how demands might vary, said Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and chief executive officer. "We and operators are still on a learning curve. When it comes to voice it's very easy," he said. "But with multimedia, what does a 13-year-old in Germany want and does an American 13-year-old feel the same? And that's much different than an adult in China." The new group will also aim to better leverage the company's relationship with Sony and with theirÂ mobile phone joint ventureÂ Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. "When it comes to multimedia, we have exciting assets in Sony Ericsson and at Sony. We just haven't put it together and it's been embedded further down in the organization," he said. Svanberg offered an example of how Sony and Ericsson products might grow increasingly complementary. Currently, users of Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot camera-phones can send photographs to an online blog. Soon, standalone Cyber-shot cameras are also likely to include connectivity so that users can send photos to a blog, he said. Because Ericsson supplies wireless network infrastructure and develops some chips for mobile devices, that type of product and application could be created through an alliance between Sony and Ericsson. The new networks group, which combines several existing network equipment groups, will have a renewed focus on converged networks that will help support some of the emerging multimedia services in the home. "In the perfect world we will have a converged network where you won't know if you're speaking on a mobile or a fixed network," Svanberg said. Similarly, a user could be watching TV at home, pick up a mobile phone to watch the same program while moving around the house and then continue watching while moving to an outside location. Such a service would operate over connected wireless and wireline networks. The third new business unit, global services, combines Ericsson's existing professional services and network rollout groups and will focus on services for operator customers. Ericsson acquiredÂ most of U.K. telecommunications equipment vendor Marconi late last year and is in the process of laying off 1,600 people as it digests the new company. That acquisition is part of a recent wave of consolidation in the competitive network equipment market, including theÂ merger of Lucent Technologies and AlcatelÂ and theÂ combination of Nokia's and Siemens' networks groups.
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Among a plethora of revamped handsets announced by Sony Ericsson this morning is one very thin Walkman phone that peeked out from behind the curtains at CES last month, and whose official announcement enthusiasts werenât expecting for maybe another three months. The handsome W880 is expected to replace the already successful W850 and W810, while reducing its profile to a mere 9.4 mm.
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(InfoWorld) - Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications will get its GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phones made in India by contract manufacturers, starting with entry-level color phones and mid-level phones with music. Annual production of its phones in the country is to reach 10 million by 2009, Sony Ericsson said on Wednesday. The phones will be made by the local operations of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which uses the brand name Foxconn, and Flextronics. These companies already make phones for Sony Ericsson in other locations. About two-thirds of Sony Ericsson's phone production worldwide is met by contract manufacturers, Miles Flint, president of Sony Ericsson told reporters in Chennai. Flextronics will start producing Sony Ericsson phones in the second quarter, with Foxconn beginning manufacturing about two to three months later. Sony Ericsson joins a number of mobile manufacturers,Â including Nokia, that are manufacturing in India or contracting Indian manufacturers, to meet the countryâs booming demand for mobile phones. India's largest telecommunications service provider, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam, insists on local manufacture of equipment it procures. Making the phones in India will help Sony Ericsson reduce costs, and offer handsets at a lower price, the company said. The phones will offer customized features for the Indian market, such as local content and customized keypads. India isÂ adding over 6 million mobile phone subscribersÂ each month. The number of wireless subscribers grew 97 percent from 75.94 million at the end of December 2005 to 149.5 million subscribers at the end of last December, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in Delhi.
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Swedish telecom equipment maker  Ericsson (ERICb.ST) and Japan's electronics giant Sony (6758.T)  will expand their cooperation beyond cell phones to mobile and  broadband TV, an Ericsson official said on Thursday.
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Four new models get the green light Four HTC Windows Mobile 5.0 handsets were unveiled today, following months of speculation and various leaks.â¦
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Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB will launch late Thursday in Berlin six new phones, including a high-end Walkman-branded handset with around 9G bytes of internal Flash memory, according to a company spokeswoman.
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Microsoft is backing a new company that will help enterprises design, deploy, and manage Windows Mobile phones and services.
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HSDPA 3G on board too Sony Ericsson is to beef up its line of Cyber-shot camera phones with a new five-megapixel model, but you're going to have to wait until nearly Christmas to get your hands on it.â¦
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Microsoft has announced its new version of its Windows operating systems for mobile devices and said it won new Asian partners hoping to gain more market share from competitors, Symbian and Nokia.
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Sharp and the Japanese division of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications will jointly develop mobile phone handsets based on the Symbian operating system (for NTT DoCoMo&#39;s third-generation (3G) Foma service in Japan and software for Foma phones.