In the third quarter of 2009, the smartphone mobile market soared like an eagle. About 290.5 million smartphones were sold in the quarter which is an increase of 5.6% from the year before. Between the five major telecommunications companies, all of them sold more phones in this quarter than the previous quarter. However Motorola slipped into 5th place behind Sony Ericsson this quarter. Samsung and LG broke new sales records this quarter too.
Samsung shipped over 60 million phones this quarter which is the highest they have ever done. Below is the break-down of the numbers provided by our friends over at UnwiredView:
* Nokia – 108.5 million units, 37.3% market share
* Samsung – 60.2 million units, 20.7% market share
* LG – 31.6 million units, 10.9% market share
* Sony Ericsson – 14.1 million units, 4.9% market share
* Motorola – 13.6 million units, 4.7% market share
* Others – 60.1 million units, 21.5% market share
Earlier this week Sony Ericsson announced the launch of the motion-activated MH907 headphones. On September 15, Sony Ericsson said that “the way you listen to music changes forever.” And then earlier this week the company made the announcement of the MH907s. The new headphones uses SensMe technology. The headphones allow you to control music playback and call handling by removing and replacing ear buds. Below is a video commercial that Sony put together for the new headphones.
Sony Ericsson has launched a new theme for the W508. The theme is inspired by house/techno artist Bob Sinclair known for his song World, Hold On! Sony Ericsson’s mid-range Walkman clamshell phone has a small external screen and three special music keys. The patterns on the phone design are similar to the cover of Bob Sinclair’s newest album “Born In 69.” Inside the Bob Sinclair edition of the W508 contains pictures, themes, ringtones, etc. The phone will be available in several European countries in Q3 2009.
Sony Ericsson announced a new mobile phone called the Kita. The Kita is a slider phone that has gesture gaming. There will be several gesture games preloaded on the Kita.
Specs of the phone include a 2.4″ screen that is 240×320 pixels with a 262,144 color TFT screen. There are special keys on the phone intended for gaming. The phone also has stereo speakers and a 5 megapixel camera. The camera has autofocus and photo flash.
The phone is available in two color: Achromatic Black and Cranberry White. The measurements of the phone is 100×48x15.7 mm and weighs 115 grams. The Kita will be available in September 2009. The Kita was made for customers in the Philippines.
The Kita is exactly like the Sony Ericsson Yari phone. The reason why the Yari is called the Kita in the Philippines is because Yari is a bad word in the Filipino language. The Yari was announced in May.
A regular forum poster over at Mobile-Review.com claims that he or she knows what the specifications of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 are. The rumored specifications are as follows:
- Silver/black combo color
- Sliding QWERTY keyboard
- 8.1 megapixel with auto focus, VGA, 30fps MP4 HQ
- GPS, aGPS
- 3.5 mm headphone jack
- Accelerometer
- 512 RAM
- Customized Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system (will run as fast as the iPhone or better in some cases)
- Ability to upgrade to Windows Mobile 7
- XPERIA panels
Stay tuned to find out when these specs pan out. No word on the release date or price of this phone, but I’m sure we can expect it in several months.
Sony Ericsson has announced that the W995a Walkman will go on sale at all of the Sony Style retail stores around the U.S. on July 6th. The W995a is very similar to the W995 Walkman model, except that the new version has tri-band UMTS/HSPA (850/1800/1900MHz) radio. Other specs of the W995a include 2.6″ QVGA display, 8.1 megapixel camera, image stabilization, auto focus, face detection, video calling, WiFi, aGPS, FM radio, Media Go, and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. The phone comes unlocked for a price of around $600.
The Sony Ericsson TM717 has been submitted to the FCC, but it has the code name “Elle.” The TM717 is expected to replace the TM506 since it looks similar and packs more features. The TM717 also has a AWS 3G network connection option and a 3.2 megapixel camera. The camera on the TM506 is 2 megapixels. Depending on the FCC’s approval, we should expect to see the TM717 hit the T-Mobile network in the next several months.
Sony Ericsson has announced the launching of two new phones. The phone on the left is the GreenHeart C901 and the phone on the right is the Naite. The two phones will be part of Sony Ericsson’s GreenHeart line of phones.
The phones are made out of recycled materials, minimal packaging, paint that is non-toxic, and the user-guide is all electronic instead of being printed out. Below are the specs of each phone:
GreenHeart C901:
- Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- Dualband (900/2100) UMTS/HSPA
- 5 MP camera with Xenon flash and smile-shutter
- 2.2″ 240×320 resolution
- A2DP Bluetooth
- Memory Stick Micro M2 card slot
- Google Maps
Sony Ericsson has partnered with application store company GetJar. The partnership gives Ericsson users access to 45,000 free applications. The applications are part of the GetJar PlayNow arena.
“With its experience in delivering mobile applications to a wide consumer base, GetJar has demonstrated the value of choice, quality and performance when it comes to distributing mobile content,” stated Sony Ericsson Head of Developer & Partner Engagement Christopher David. “In the rapidly growing mobile content market, partnering with GetJar will allow us to complement the quality application offerings of our mobile content and entertainment service PlayNow arena.”
The GetJar app store has about 450 million downloads. The company has about 45,000 mobile applications available for download. GetJar is backed by Accel Partners.
Sony Ericsson has announced the addition of two mobile phones. The Yari (left) and the Aino (right) have a major focus on multimedia. The Yari is more known for gaming and features gesture controls similar to a Wiimote. The Yari also sports a 2.4″ display, GPS and PlayNow support. The Yari will be hitting the shelves for €400.
The Aino has a 3″ touchscreen, 8.1 megapixel camera, GPS, HSPA, Sony Remote Play support and will be available in black and white. No word on pricing for the Aino yet, but it is assumed to have a higher retail than the Yari.
At the last Mobile World Congress event, Sony demoed a phone called the Idou. And the rumors are (mostly) correct. The Idou has been officially renamed to the Satio and has been slapped with a release date. The phone will be arriving in shelves this coming October and will sport the following features:
- 640×350 3.5″ touchscreen device
- 12.1 megapixel camera
- dual-band HSPA
- microSD expansion (not Memory Stick Pro)
- xenon flash
- Three colors: black, silver, bordeaux
Sony Ericsson is in deep financial trouble. In order to even stay alive, the company needs a $135.5 million infusion of cash according to a report by InformationWeek. If they are unable to raise these funds, the venture between Sony Corporation and Ericsson may end up breaking apart and they may not be making any new phones together anymore.
Sony Ericsson had a rough first quarter where they lost $386 million and their sales dropped 36% from the year before. Sony Ericsson never really had a strong market-share in the smartphone market. But going forward the company vowed to make phones with high quality cameras and will have a bigger focus on multimedia.
According to BGR, a Sony Ericsson public relations representative in Germany has confirmed that the Idou will be available in October. The Idou has a 3.5″ touchscreen, 12 megapixel camera, GPS, and is powered by Symbian.
New Sony mylo 2 phones are no longer available. They can only be purchased today in refurbished form. During the past holiday season, Sony lowered the price of the phone by a couple hundred dollars. The refurbished model is selling for $149.99, all the new mylo’s are seen as out of stock, but would sell for $50 if it was available. What we don’t know is whether Sony plans on scrapping Internet Device units going forward or if we’ll be seeing a mylo 3 in the near future.
Sony Ericcson has announced the T707 phone with tennis star Maria Sharapova as their spokeswoman. Sharapova and her dog also endorses Canon’s line of cameras as seen in the TV commercials. The T707 is interesting because calls can be ended by simply waving your hand over the screen.
The T707 has a 3.2 megapixel camera and it has a built-in HTML web browser. The T707 screen is 2.2 inches and FM radio streaming and Bluetooth. There are day and night changing themes, gestures for muting calls, alarm clock, and pulsating notifications.
The built-in camera is ideal for picture and video blogging. Ringtones can be set by adding MP3s to the phone. There is a YouTube application built into the operating system too. Photos can be geo-tagged and the GPS is controlled by Google Maps.
