Someone needs a wakeup call... Options

[Mizzle]

It would be impossible for me to do a comprehensive, technically detailed write-up of how Sony Ericsson turned the million Euro incomes to expenses, and I'm sure it'd be rather uninteresting for you as well. That's why I'm not going to do that nor try to do it. I will, however, try to sum up what went wrong and how. As you'd expect, this rant will reflect nothing but my personal opinions and thoughts on Sony Ericsson's past and current decisions, as well as what seems to be Sony Ericsson's future plans. Also want you to know that I'm uncertain whether or not this piece is finished. I can't make up my mind on whether I should add more to make it more clear, or leave it as it is, so apologies in advance if parts don't make any sense to you.

The copy/paste-strategy

Sony Ericsson changed its product strategy a few years ago. The company saw huge advantages of making use of the same hardware and software platforms with only few minor changes. Initially, the strategy worked out very well - probably because it was still of limited use.
Sony Ericsson announced the rather amazing K750 back in very early March 2005. The K750 is one of Sony Ericsson's most innovative phones ever, period. It was such an immense update from K700, and the camera - which was the most interesting feature about it - was built upon the camera of the S700, and greatly enhanced. I doubt it came as a surprise for K750 users when it was announced the best camera phone of the year. The K750 wasn't one to miss, and sales surpassed all expectations.

At the same day the K750 was announced, Sony Ericsson also announced another very similar phone, which featured the same stunning camera features, while also bringing the Sony Walkman brand into the mobile phone market. The W800 was born.

This is where Sony Ericsson's now heavily used segmentation has its roots, and it wasn't long until another Sony Ericsson trend arose. About nine months after the announcement of the W800, Sony Ericsson announced the W810 - a slightly updated W800 with a few hardware upgrades, such as adding quad-band GSM and EDGE functionality rather than tri-band only, and a slightly updated user interface, not to mention the arguably nicer design. And that was about it... Even though not much had changed compared to W800, the W810 sold very well, and Sony Ericsson managed to keep up the hype about their products, for now at least.

A month after the announcement of W810, Sony Ericsson announced the M600. And just about a week after that, the W950 was announced. Both phones were built on the exact same platform with the exact same operating system, with only minor differences to each. The M600 featured a full keyboard, whilst the W950 featured a rather regular keypad. It was obvious that Sony Ericsson had just taken its product segmentation to the next level with the M600 being a business phone, and the W950 being a music phone, although they were 99 percent the same. Have a look at the more recent P1 and W960 smart phones - the story continued.

Later that month, the K800 was announced. This was the successor of K750, and to make it even more obvious that this phone was "a camera", Sony Ericsson hooked up with its Japanese parent company and branded it the very first Cyber-shot phone. Back then, Sony Ericsson said that only the best digital cameras would wear the Cyber-shot brand, and at the same time promised that the quality of the photos would be beyond the usual. Do you think they'd still be proud to say that about the C902 and K850 today? Personally, I doubt it when it comes to these two in particular as they're short on quality compared to other market offerings, but I wouldn't doubt for a second, that they'll be prouder than ever to say it about the C905.

So, the K800 brought along some hardware upgrades and an entirely new software platform. It took a whole year for Sony Ericsson to announce its newest Cyber-shot flagship, which - in most cases - was no different than the K800. Once again, Sony Ericsson had added the quad-band GSM and EDGE functionality, slightly updated the software, and changed the design to a more appealing one.

By now, Sony Ericsson was slowly starting to fall behind, and had now made it pretty clear to most that they weren't going to change this "hardware/software swap" trend - and well, they didn't. As far as I can tell, the portfolio included more than forty of these phones from about 2005 to now. These are:

C902, D750, G502, K310, K320, K530, K550, K630, K750, K770, K790, K800, K810, M600, P1, S302, S500, T250, T270, T280, T650, T700, V640, W300, W302, W550, W580, W600, W610, W660, W700, W710, W800, W810, W890, W902, W950, W960, Z530, Z555, Z710, Z750, Z770, and Z780.

I wouldn't be surprised if I've missed some, or if some of you disagree with me, but fact is that the above mentioned phones are each very similar to at least one or more of the other mentioned phones.

Cutting down on the high-end products

Because of Sony Ericsson's almost endless line of similar phones, many high-end consumers have left the company for others. Although it is not the only reason for Sony Ericsson's decreasing phone ASP (average selling price), this has without doubt been one of them.

Sony Ericsson used to be a manufacturer delivering very high-end offerings with basically no comprises on features or size. Lately they haven't been up for the challenge of keeping up with the game, and were late at incorporating newer, more advanced features into their phone portfolio. Here we're talking about features such as GPS and WLAN. Sony Ericsson's portfolio is still very limited when it comes to phones with these features, and while most of the new smart phones feature WLAN connectivity, none of them include a built-in GPS unit. If we're going to take a look at the feature phones, it's rather clear that only a few feature a built-in GPS unit, and only one - for now - does also feature built-in WLAN.

And when it comes to features, how many of Sony Ericsson's latest phones would you say have brought anything new to the table? Not a whole lot of them, I guess, and the stuff that was brought to the table is nowhere near being as innovative as it had been just a few years ago. Take the recently announced T700 as an example - it brings absolutely nothing new to the market, and W890, which seems like the better and cheaper choice, is already on the market and has been for some time. The only thing new about the T700 is its design, and that's what Sony Ericsson wants people to buy it for. In my opinion, that's no way to run a company - to create products and hope that they're bought based on their looks rather than functionality and features. Have a look on over at Motorola in USA, and you'll know what I mean.

Will this change? Yes, and as a matter of fact it is currently changing, and started changing when Miles Flint gave his chair to the current President, Hideki Komiyama. Sure, it's taken almost a year now, but I don't think it'll be that much longer now. Hideki has made it clear that the situation wouldn't be much changed in Q3, but that they're going all in on the fourth quarter of the year, and I must admit that they've got a strong line-up for the mass market, while still not forgetting all about the business segment.

Branding - just for the sake of it?

Sony Ericsson has currently got two Sony brands to go on segmented Sony Ericsson products; the Cyber-shot brand, and the Walkman brand. The use of the brands is one of the things Hideki Komiyama has to do something about.

At the moment, Sony Ericsson's portfolio includes a total of nine Cyber-shot branded phones, from the low-end K550 to the high-end C905. Sony Ericsson's portfolio also includes no less than 26 Walkman branded music phones, again from the low-end ones, such as W200 and W300, to the high-end ones, such as W902, W960 and W980.

Seeing there is such a great difference in these products varying from the very cheap end of the line-up to the more expensive ones, how is it that even the very low-end phones can wear the same brand of quality as the high-end ones? Well, it's nothing but a marketing gig.

I am personally finding it very hard to believe that the W200 really "deserves" this Walkman quality brand. In my opinion, it was merely because the Walkman range didn't include any really cheap offerings, so they just smashed on the Walkman brand, and went on hoping no one would notice. The same goes for the Cyber-shot range and many of the phones in it, especially the K550. They can't seriously think that this phone is going to replace a digital compact camera. If so, they're barking mad! Once again, this was just to make the range a bit more complete. What's worse is that the K550's Walkman copy, the W610, is actually a better camera phone than K550, because of the - in my opinion - horrific post-processing of the Cyber-shot camera software. Believe it or not, the difference is there, and it is evident.
The same thing goes for the Cyber-shot branded K770 and its generic sibling, the T650. Although the difference is less noticeable in this case, mainly because the camera module has been replaced for an excellent Samsung module, it should be clear to most that - up until now - the branding has been done just for the sake of it. By the way, the T650 remains one of Sony Ericsson's best camera phones in terms of quality - even without the wonderful Cyber-shot brand.

Some will wonder why I'm writing "up until now". This is mainly because Sony Ericsson recently announced the C905, that can actually replace a low/mid-end digital compact camera, and because most Walkman phones are actually decent music phones, although the majority are still victims of Sony Ericsson's heavy segmentation, meaning the cameras are just about worthless in most cases.

Discouraging financial results

I don't know about you, but I loved every single bit of the Q2 financial results, and I even laughed when I read the part about the huge profit drop. The results were indeed very discouraging, and I'm hopeful that they were discouraging to such a degree that it opened Sony Ericsson's eyes.

The operating income turned negative. I'm most certain this means they've manufactured too many phones that simply didn't sell. I blame a large part of this problem on the amount of similar phones, and Sony Ericsson's excessive software modifications for each of its two Sony brands, especially when it's far from up to the level it should be.

One thing I loved about the financial results is that Sony Ericsson claims that the market is proving challenging. I think someone needs a wakeup call, ASAP! It really can't be that hard to understand that the market doesn't want three different variants of each phone, where the only difference is the branding and price. In addition to that, it really can't be that hard to understand that the expenses will triple when manufacturing and marketing three similar phones instead of just one.

Conclusion

So, is it really as bad as it sounds? Well, partially. So far I've only mentioned the bad stuff and how it went bad. Sony Ericsson has come up with some fabulous phones recently, including the C905, G700, G900 and X1. These represent the very best Sony Ericsson has to offer, and this golden league will soon welcome a few very much needed additions.

The fact that Sony Ericsson's sales didn't go down substantially also means that there are still many people out there that do want to buy Sony Ericsson products. Lately, Sony Ericsson's strategy just hasn't been any profitable, mainly because the number of similar phones has been growing a lot.

Another factor that goes to prove that Sony Ericsson knows about their problems is the fact that about 2,000 employees are to be sacked. How can this possibly be a good thing, you ask? Well, Sony Ericsson's portfolio has been flooded by - let's just call them copy/paste phones - and lots of them! It's been reported that Sony Ericsson had expanded its portfolio by about fifteen mobile phones year on year, and I suspect the majority are copy/paste phones. For each phone a massive crew is needed of more than 100 employees. Yes, that's for each phone, even if they've been through the photocopier! That means the majority of the 2,000 employees that are to be sacked could come from the development and marketing of copy/paste phones. Official spokespeople have even said that a great part of the cuts will be in Sweden, which adds up perfectly to the above mentioned theory.
But wait, what about the rest? Well, it's not exactly unusual for a company with such an immense profit drop to lay off a number of employees, and I guess that's also the reason in Sony Ericsson's case.

I'll leave you with that, and wrap up this rant. It's not all bad, and things are (slowly) turning, although it'll definitely take some time. If you're willing to wait, you should do it. If not - well, you might want to reconsider, and keep in mind that it really isn't as bad as it looks, although it might sound harsh and feel like the most stupid thing in the world to support Sony Ericsson at times.

From the USEB:
http://blog.se-nse.net/someone-needs-a-wakeup-call/.

[Ly]

Interesting.
I like reading rants, cos you can either agree or disagree

This post has been edited by Lynott: 2008-08-08 13:59

[hks_911]

i hope the guys read this and wake up very fast from cozzzzzzzz i love just like u allllllll

This post has been edited by hks_911: 2008-08-08 14:16

[gauravsali]

@ mizzle
do se managers and president will read this and think about it???
or already they are changing????

[flyingpig_69uk]

You know, I love my k750i, it's a great little phone. But today I saw reviews on the Nokia N82, and I thought to myself....."is there an SE phone that can contend with this?" my answer was no. What a shame.

[Ciggy]

at least my 830 hasn't fallen into that category or has it?

[Mizzle]

@ mizzle
do se managers and president will read this and think about it???
or already they are changing????

I've notified Dick Komiyama about it now, and yes, quite a few of the SE managers read the blog

[weirdwilli]

Nice work again Miz
Really interesting, and I like how argue on both sides unlike some people do these days.

[bambarah]

Well then , if people are reading these pages , I hope they understand my suggestion

I love JAVA platform more than smart platforms , like SYMBIAN , WM & others
because it is more stable and faster

the only reason I bought P990i is because the ulimited entries in phonebook

I wish if the develpors @ would make the phonebook abilities in JAVA phones similar to those in the SYMBIAN phones

The contact in JAVA can't exceed 21 digits , there are some contact wihch I need to write alot of info inside them
for example , I write my dad bank account number , ID number , passport number and many other personal info about him in his own contact

I have some long info like adress directions , work notes and other needed things which I wish if that was able to be run on JAVA phone

would we see that phonebook in JAVA phones ?
I beleieve in abilities

[xell]

Actually you can add a hell lot of text into the "info" field at A200 phones.

[Mr.Phear]

Well done Mizzle.

I am with you on the whole thing. I've noticed the exact same trends. I often go to phone websites like www.phonearena.com and www.gsmarena.com and I always click on the Sony Ericcson segment of these websites. Lately, all of the phones next to each other look almost identical, just as you said.

Now that's not to say that (lets use as an example) the G900, a simple, but very sleek candybar, and the C902, also a pretty simple in design candybar, are just copies of each other. I really like how both of them bring a nice feature to the table: the G900 a touchscreen (but still with regular keypad) and the C902 a camera which can stand up to some of the camera out on the market today. But all of the low-end phones are just completely identical other than design.

When I first got my W810i, I bought it because of its design and great looks. But if I were to buy an SE now, too many other phones look too similar, and it just doesn't make mine stand out.

Please, SE, cut the low-end crap that is designed to look "high end." You're not fooling me, and it turns me away from the brand more, knowing that my $600USD phone has the same look as a $300USD phone. Don't get rid of ALL the lower end stuff, but get rid of the stuff that does not improve anything and is only released to "trick" the market. Hardcore fans (like most of us here) can see right through it.

SE has always caught my eye with their high end phones. The C905, the X1, the G900... all of them are GREAT phones with a GREAT feature set. Something like that is worth shelling out $500+ for. I don't want an imitation that costs half as much, but looks the same. Part of the reason I pay that much is so that others will see it and just know "Hey, that is one HELL of a phone."

Hopefully, your predictions are true and SE really does add more high end phones to the portfolio. The G900, which is still to me the greatest looking candy bar on the market, was released without a 850MHz band. It would be great for them to add more phones with this type of innovation to the portfolio, not only because they look good but also because its the stuff that we as the consumer want.

Well that got a little off topic at points and turned into my own "rant" of sorts.


In addition, SE, why do you continue to release phones that are not globalized? I am seeing way too many phones that are perfect for the European market, but do not work for the United States very well. Take the 3 new Walkman phones. The W902, a decent phone with a fairly nice feature set, has quad-band, BUT WHERE'S THE 3G SUPPORT FOR AMERICA?

I understand that maybe the American market isn't the biggest one for SE, but hey, don't you think that maybe if we could actually buy a phone that worked here, your market share would increase? I'm not about to pay some 500-600 dollars for a phone, but then not be able to use it to its maximum potential!

This is really getting too long. I'll have to end it here, but I'm really not done. I'm hoping some of you have more to add, because I feel that I'm just going "all out" against Sony Ericsson. And while it may seem like it, know that in my heart, I'll always be a fanboy. There's nothing I can do about it. It's just so disappointing to see the company turn into the wrong direction.

Last, but not least, please SE, stop announcing phones and releasing them 4-6 months later. This is not working for me. Look at some other brands. Nokia will announce and release within a month. One they released at the announcement. Why can't you be like that too? The X1 would have been a HELL of a release if you had completed it in February. Don't give your competitors a chance to catch up. The C905 has that same mistake. Samsung already has their 8MP shooter announced, and they'll probably release before you! Announce, release. That's how we like it.

Q4 better be one hell of a turnaround, because I am in dire need of a new phone. My W810i is hella old and I need a replacement, bad. I really can't go with anybody else, I'm just too used to SE now.

Well, this is the real end of my rant. Hopefully none of you flame me out too much about this, and hopefully I didn't say anything wrong. I'm not about to re-read everything, so if I did say something wrong or had misleading info, my apologies in advance.

Edit: DAMN this is really long! I had no idea I had so much to say!

This post has been edited by Mr.Phear: 2008-08-08 19:31

[shino03]

"One of the most stupid things in the world is supporting Sony Ericsson at times."

Well that's 99% correct. I did really like your post even if I have to review for my upcoming exams, I still want my opinion to be heard. Ok, so here is the thing, I have been telling to other people that wireless headphones are much better than other headphones. I am talking about the walkman line-up. Oh, God! They're called walkman even without having 3.5mm jack.... I often support them even if I think it's illogical....

Ok, so I agree with you about the thing your saying of the "copy and paste" strategy. Well, that's undoubtedly correct. But even though it's correct, I just like to tell that even other brands are making that "copy and paste" strategy. Take for example Nokia's N78 and N77, their is only a minor difference between the two. I heard one of my friends which currently using a nokia that he is bored with nokia because of the same interface or hardware.... Well I think, every fans of each brands are feeling or had felt the same things we are having right now.

Sorry if my reply is hard to understand. It's because I'm feeling dizzy right now...
I'll just try to make it clear after my review....

[tranced]

damn, mizzle, my eyes hurt

this is the first time reading such an argument and i must say that you did it great. i enjoyed reading all this and it took me back to the 06 when i got my k750.

we just have to wait SE to wake up and read this over and over again and recognize that they must change. i know they are doing better now with the latest announcements, but they need more and more features to keep in the game.

nice one mizzle

[thugz mafia]

this is so true...hats off to the rant mizzle

[-Spyder-]

This is exactly the reason why i went for another brand this time and went for the LG Viewty

About a week ago my contract ended on my W850 and i wanted a new phone on PAYG so i was going to go for the W580, becasue i liked its light-up buttons and looks and shake control but i then relised that thats not worth it at all and also my mates had recently got that phone and they had some button and screen problems, so anyways i changed my mind of the w580 and thought about the W910, but there was still only a few things new on this phone and it had the same megapixel camera as my w850 which is :censored: and the price over here in UK to buy one is about £140, so then I looked up the new W760 and its nearly the same as the w910 apart from it has a 3.2 camera a nice design and can operate some gps sofware and costs £190 and thats about it, same old UI graphic design, so on the way to the shops i was looking at some phones and did like the LG viewty for ages but i thought it was too much and i dident want to waste loads of money on a phone tbh, but it was priced at £150 in phones4u, and i was really surprised so i tried n tested it out to see if i wanted it and it is a great phone so i bought it there and then because that was the last one, so it just shows, and i bet many other people will think the same, i just wish sony ericsson would fix there problem of this because ive always like sony ericssons and ive had many others over the last couple of years but atm until they do im staying away from them

[Mr.Phear]

Lol, unnecessary video..
What do you have to think about this, not maroon 5, hahha

This post has been edited by Mr.Phear: 2008-08-09 16:38

[photographer]

Do you know the song title, Mr.Phear It's called Wakeup call aaaand the title ^^ ? Someone needs a wakeup call! (hey! )


Nice post there I hope SE finally wakes up... I'd like my next phone to last a little longer than an average of 4 months lol. (w580i, needed to get to the repair shop for 3 times for ahardware issues...)

[Mr.Phear]

Lol, yep I do know the song title, I'm just noting that it adds nothing to the thread

[Mizzle]

Yep, adds nothing. So it was removed.

Good to hear the positive feedback on this

[rynn]

I think the problem is that SE is overestimating the value of their brand. It just seems to me like they're under the impression that people will buy a phone just because it's a Sony Ericsson. With cell phones being classified as FMCEs, it might not be such a good idea to pin too much hope on brand-loyalty.