Bad news, good news, and potentially great news time, folks. First with the bad:
Sony Ericsson posted
another loss for its fiscal third quarter, to the tune of 164 million euro (about $244 million US), blaming a large chunk of that on a drop in sales. Sales dropped year-over-year 40 percent to 1.6 billion euro, and unit shipments comparably down 45 percent. That's the bad, now what's good for SE is that its secured more financial backing to reshape its future into something more profitable. External financing totals a reported 455 million euro ($676 million US), 255 million of which is already in the company's position and 200 million as a two-year backup. SE also managed to beat analyst estimates, losing less than anticipated, and that's gotta induce some bittersweet smiles in the corporate boardrooms... oh, the potentially great news? Well,
SEMC blog has boldly announced that the
Android-imbued
Rachael (a.k.a.
XPERIA X3) is due out this November, same specs as
we heard before and two color options,
Sensuous Black and Luster White. Unfortunately, we're not seeing exactly where this news is coming for, so until SE speaks the magic words, we're considering it a rumor for now -- but we're hopeful.
[Via
GSM Arena; thanks, Gillz and Christo]
Read - Rachael in November?
Read - Sony Ericsson 3Q loss widens
Read - XPERIA X3 in the wild
posted October 16th 2009 4:49PM
No. Touch Screen only with 3 buttons along the bottom
This might be SE's redemption. Their strength used to be in developing hardware, not software. The w580i had a great, snappy OS, but the damn thing fell apart in six weeks flat. Let them use a free OS and concentrate on build quality. Give me an Android phone that will walk all over an iPhone in terms of design and usability. I'm in love with Rachael.
Ohhh lovely SE, please dont pull a Moto on us and come back to hat u used to be (years ago lol)
The X3 looks HOTTTT!!!
And I dont mean Xperia or Aino kindda hot... this is like back when the T610 1st showed up and I sold all I had to get it 1st!!!
Enough of the filler info. Can anybody give straight answers for the real information that we want?
1. When is it shipping to customers' hands in the US? (not announced or "released," those 2 info are useless if the product itself is shipped months later)
2. How much is it?
3. Is Sony going to sell it unlocked?
SE could simply "announce" this in November, and we won't see the actual shipping product in customers hands by 2010. I'm tired of companies announcing their products waaaay early, and then ship them like almost a year later, especially in the US (Nokia and SE do this all the time). Why can't they just announce it and ship it on the spot worldwide (or within weeks)?
SE has a track record of releasing their phones within six months of announcing them. There are of course some high profile delays (cough, XPERIA1/P990i), but overall the wait isn't too long.
A phone like this would probably sell for around 600USD when first released. In a month or two after that, it would probably stay steady at around 450 for awhile.
Also, SE always sell their phones unlocked. Even carrier specific phones generally have an unlocked variant.
I'm a huge SE fan and buy their phones all the time, so I'm pretty sure about these points.
P.S., if the leaked video demo is acurate, I'm waaaaaay stoked for Rachael to get Eclaire into her system.
@PreGHz: 6 months is not good enough. I mean come on, why announce a product 6 months before you can actually ship it? It's ridiculous in these days and age where every info is instant. We are not dealing with the classic press release where there's time for news to seep in through traditional media anymore. The minute an announcement is made, the internet knows about it, and 6 months becomes an eternity and can pretty much kill the hype.
"Also, SE always sell their phones unlocked. Even carrier specific phones generally have an unlocked variant."
In Europe/Asia, yes. In the US, big FAT NOPE. SE cherry pick some models to be sold unlocked and some locked thru AT&T/T-Mobile. Some models may end up available both locked and unlocked, but there are plenty of models that only end up locked. Even worse, instead of just releasing ONE version of the product that works worldwide, SE (and Nokia etc) always make different versions of the products, complete with incompatible frequencies (the rest of the world vs US). I mean what's the point of this? Ridiculous! Not only that, there are tons of models that never see the light and day in the US.
I am, or was, an SE fan, Most of my previous phones were SE phones. I like it that SE is one of the few companies that is promoting and selling unlocked phones openly (moreso than Nokia) in the US, but enough is enough. Everytime I see an announcement of a slew of new SE phones, they're mostly Europe/Asia only, and 'maybe' the US get few models, months later. I mean come on, where is the US version of C903?
it is important to remember that SE are rebranding and going thru a major realignment at this time. we wont see how that works out til 6 mo to a year. also remember that se has traditionally used symbian os. se was a device maker. which os they use is irrelevent as long as it does what they need it to do. rip UIQ. that was a great ui layer and if my P1i back button hadnt failed i would still be using it.
With cell phone designs going the way it is right now ( i.e. edge to edge screens with a home/call/end call buttons), what's left for hardware manufacturers to distinguish their offerings visually from the competition?
An android phone with only 3 buttons? I guess SE is the only company that realises that you don't need like 6 buttons. Way to go SE!
I'd like this phone, I'd like the TG01, I'd like the iPhone, I'd like HD2. Too bad there are only old phone models on Sprint.