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In case you haven't seen it already Eldar Murtazin over at Mobile-Review has published an open letter to Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg. The jist of the letter is essentially to give a wake up call to Sony Ericsson over their lacklustre performance these past few years. It's a sentiment close to many Sony Ericsson fans' hearts and as such I thought I would spend a few moments presenting my own thoughts on the matter.
The first thing to say is that Eldar hits the nail on the head with one simple idea: Sony Ericsson have been ignoring the problems they face. It's as simple as that. I see them. You see them. Eldar sees them. The press sees them. Their competitors see them. In fact the only people who haven't seen them, or have chosen not to, are Sony Ericsson themselves. Time after time we have been presented with the same tired old party line that Sony Ericsson remain innovative and cutting edge; it's a lie that becomes more hollow the more it is repeated. It's time to stop chanting this mantra and wake up to reality.
For too long Sony Ericsson has coasted, releasing handsets that are at best 'ok', just enough to sell reasonably well and keep the company from completely sinking. At worst they are handsets that are filled with flawed hardware and buggy firmware. I could list several examples, but you've probably already thought of a couple before you have even reached the end of this sentence. Time after time we see products released that can only be described as 'not fit for purpose'. The W910? Buggy to the core. The W580? Poor quality keypads that consistently cracked. The C905? They plumbed new depths with this one, buggy software and poor quality hardware. It wasn't always like this though. This is the same company that gave us the T610, the K750 and the P800. This is the company that introduced the Walkman music-phone and the Cybershot cameraphone. So where has it gone wrong?
Complacency. Self-denial. Laziness. Hubris. These are all traits Sony Ericsson have displayed over the past few years. Cutting corners on products to get them out whilst leaving customers with sub-standard handsets. A refusal to change with the market and an insistence on sticking to tired old formats like outdated operating systems and connection ports. Pathetic corporate controlled attempts at generating 'buzz' and 'excitement' over weak handsets that are consistently late to market. A clear example would be the X1. Announced almost a year before being launched in a vain attempt to promote excitement and build a following. It backfired because the excitement died down after almost a year with no handset available! The PR campaign surrounding the X1 was ill conceived too; a corporate directed initiative to create a social scene around the handset with a PR agency employed to create a blog about the product. Why not engage existing bloggers, who are actually fans, more widely? Come on chaps, is that the best that could be done for the X1?
I'm using some specific examples here, but the fact is that Sony Ericsson, as it currently stands, is rotten to the core. It exudes a tired sickly image of a man staggering down the road trying to live on past glories. Only he won't admit the world has moved on and that his way of doing things no longer works. So what can be done?
Take risks. Don't be afraid of releasing handsets that actually push boundaries. Give us products that make us sit up and say 'wow' when we first see them. Extra megapixels is not innovation. More memory is not innovation. Cutting corners is not innovation. Treating bloggers and the press with contempt, when and if they are approached at all, is not innovation. Handsets that offer never before seen features and applications is innovative. Products that do things in exciting new ways is innovative. Phones that give us the ability to make our lives easier are innovative. Connecting with customers, bloggers and the press instead of dealing with hired PR agencies is innovative.
I take no pleasure in writing this because it's something that should never have to be written, but Sony Ericsson has always been my favourite phone manufacturer and so I feel compelled to say something. Eldar's letter wasn't borne out of malice and neither is this, quite the contrary. I want to see Sony Ericsson at the top of their game again and I know they can be. Your customers have stuck with you Sony Ericsson, they have suffered through all manner of poorly executed products and badly planned projects and it's time you started to listen to them. Repeating the same tired platitudes that you listen, that you innovate and that you are at the forefront of the mobile market doesn't wash with us anymore. We are tired of words, we want action. We want the Sony Ericsson we knew and loved back!
MultiQuote
to do anything though
!? The firmware is damn slow compare to the DB2010 phones
Posted 23 September 2009 - 05:52 PM
