Sony Ericsson has yet to make this public, but we've learned that the flagging handset maker has caved once more to the pressures of the modern phone market place. If you'll recall,
450 employees were nixed from the company's payrolls in September of last year, and now the entire Research Triangle Park facility is being shuttered. In an internal announcement made this morning, SE is fixing to close four total sites: RTP in North Carolina, a smaller Miami facility and operations in Kista (Sweden) and Chennai. All told, 2,000 employees will be trimmed, with severance packages being offered to those who qualify. As of now, the departing individuals have yet to be chosen, with employees in RTP given the opportunity to apply for jobs elsewhere (likely in Atlanta or California). We're told that the cuts will happen "in stages," with project teams being assembled as we speak to work out the logistics. Frankly, we aren't as shocked as we are saddened to hear the news -- SE has refused to keep pace with the other handset makers, and its decision to wait until next year to ship
an Android device is indicative of the choices that have kept it in the shadows these past few years. Here's hoping this
restructuring effort actually gets things headed in the right direction.
Update: And
it's official. SE will also be shutting down small offices in Seattle and San Diego, with its North American headquarters shifting from RTP to Atlanta and its research and development operation transitioning from RTP to Redwood Shores, California.
posted November 18th 2009 8:58AM
This is giving the iPhone too much credit. Ericsson's problems are coming from their end.
1) Their phones don't come out in a timely manner allowing other phones to come out with similar or the same options they announced months before.
2) The phones are far to costly, no subsidizing for them most of the time.
3) Their reliability is dodgy at best, this generally comes from the fact that they use a propriatary connector for their phone which oxidizes or wares out over time, the phones themselves are fairly stable other than this small flaw.
4) You normally can't buy the newest phones from carriers, most of the phones carriers sell from Ericsson are best discribed as "last year's model"
The iPhone is no longer the power house it once was, it is tied to a carrier which is dropping in market share as fast as it gained it thanks to recent viral ads against the company and the phone its self, and as it is now even if the iPhone were to go wide stream into all carriers, or atleast more, it wouldn't be seeing the same sales it has over the past few years, because face it there are better phones out there now.
@3dpenguin You are crazy and/or delusional if you don't believe the next iPhone offering or hell even the current won't continue to sell like hotcakes. Let's face it, outside of the tech world there is no other phone that poses a legitimate threat to the iPhone.
recession antidote time
Even though he got laid off, Ross still loves Rachael.
They were on a break!!!!
The Jedi's are going to feel this one...
Maybe I should, but I really don't care. All SE has given me is trouble.
"and its decision to wait until next year to ship an Android 1.6 device "
Eh, you may wanna check again. The only reason they announced the X10 with Android 1.6 is because 2.0 wasn't yet announced for non-google experience devices. As per the SE press conference today in the Netherlands, it will ship with 2.0 on release date.
The facilities that are being closed down are non-critical ones, AFAIK.
And you might want to read the article again.....
He never said.....
"and its decision to wait until next year to ship an Android 1.6 device "
What he SAID was....
and its decision to wait until next year to ship an Android device....
No one's that dumb. Probably a correction.
It IS a correction. I copy-pasted the sentence from the original article.
@synn
Good keen eye. +1
Wish Engadget, would strike out, and show revision... atleast that's how real Editors role.
All I know is that SE would've sold way more cheap phones, by simply adopting to some standards, like the 3.5mm jack for headphones (at least for their MUSIC phones, come on now SE!!) or a MicroSD card, instead of their proprietary stuff. I'm sure just these two made many people choose Nokia or Samsung instead.
My Satio has microSD....damn shame about the no 3.5 jack though
I am sure this has/had something to do with Sony and not affecting the Walkman brand i.e. license the brand but dont use a 3.5mm jack.
Yeah, there are a few models that have those, but way too few.
I just made a search on http://www.gsmarena.com/search.php3 and there are only 3 (THREE) SE phones that have both a 3.5 mm jack and a microSD slot: Xperia X1, X2 and X10, all of them top of the range/expensive models. Even if we ignore the microSD slot there are still only 5 SE phones with a 3.5 mm jack. Compare that to 43 Nokias and 30 Samsungs, many of which cheap.
@poke: Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking. They have to sell them Sony Walkman PMPs and M2 memory cards, also made by Sony. Just too much corporate Sony for my taste...
They need to ship X10 N-O-W with 1.6 for those fanboys (like me) who'll prop up their bottom line by a million or two, and release the update when 2.0 comes out.
Sony Ericsson is not producing the devices it used to produce some years ago and it is not feeling the competition that is around these days. I was sony ericsson user for a long time but now planning to shift to droid. I tried its firmware that is Android 2.0 on my PC and loved it have a look
http://www.zjtechlive.com/try-android-2-0-on-your-windows/
Though we as techies love smartphones and expect the best around 90% of the mobiles being sold and the mayority of the money most likely isnt in the smartphone department. So sure a new smartphone would put Sony on the map again a bit but they should focus on releasing a significant interesting dumbphone or atleast produce something like the Cookie which is dirtsheep yet still looks smart.
But then... I´m just another techie what would I know about business strategies :D
What a shame. :(
I live less than a mile from the RTP site. It is a nice looking facility. Shame that it will be empty soon.
And so Sony's golden touch continues to spread...
"Sony $3bn loss
Sony has said it expects to post a record annual operating loss of nearly $3 billion because of the rapid deterioration of the global economy. It also announced a major overhaul that would include layoffs and factory closings.
"The massive economic upheaval being experienced across the world is sparing no one in the consumer electronics world," the Sony chief executive, Howard Stringer, told reporters in Tokyo.
Stringer said the main problem had been "a significant deterioration" in the company’s core electronics division. But business worsened across every major line, including games, movies and financial services. "
sony erasin'
More like Sony Erection!
Have had 3 Sony Ericssons in a row (t610i, w810i, t650i) but my next phone is certainly not going to be one ... very sad ...
Seems the X10 is maturing fast. Check out "Computer Sweden's " hands on with the latest release.
http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.270845/vi-har-kant-pa-x10
Or Google translated (horrible!)
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.idg.se%2F2.1085%2F1.270845%2Fvi-har-kant-pa-x10&sl=sv&tl=en
Having been myself testing SE devices at earlier dayy, many improvement proposals I made were just filed as "according to the specs" no matter whether they were relevant or not. You dont wanna know how often I have been pulling my hair because of these harsh replies from SE...
To me, T68 was a milestone (although by Ericsson), K800i the next major one. What a great device! Top CCD allowing to take great pics, flash, 3G, Bluetooth, Mass Storage Device, good battery life - all you could ask for.
To me it was noticable that after K800i nothing really good came up, just a matter of including/excluding a bearer, variations of keyboard physics (once you got a good keyboard, it was gone again with the next phone - argh!), permutations of design (slider / clamshell / bar...), and things which you thought you'd never have to worry again popped up as non-working (X1: you can't receive contacts by SMS!).
Windows Mobile to *me* is a dead end for SE as an entertainment company... Since my first 2003 PocketPC there has been no major change except in resolution and a few GUI add-ons. To expect that WM (resp. Microsoft) would be able to adapt to specific needs of SE was a nice wish but never really materialized.
I see a slight chance at the end of the tunnel right now for SE with the Android platform - but not at a 700 Euro pricetag of the flagship X10. Motorola Droid knocks on the door with a $500 price tag, other devices as well are trying to catch their market share in the Android universe. More than 23 devices from other manufacturers are already competing within that OS, and Android 2.0 showing eg. "combined inbox" as a feature which more or less is what SE's TimeScape does in a nicer way.
My gut feeling is that SE currently does a lot as "me too", maybe to win time and develop a better product roadmap. Camphones are out, as well as music-only devices. The iPhone (as in user experience, usability and GUI) has paved the way.
I am an iPhone user since long, being "connected" to many services. Certainly the iPhone has its flaws as well. Bad reception / call drops, no chance to send contacts by SMS either, no USB Mass Storage Device capabilities, no easy music playback when using multiple computers connected - there are a few annoying features.
Still, the majority of pro's features is still higher than the annoying ones on the iPhone, and until another manufacturer comes up by providing an excellent telco experience, and at the same time embracing the iPhone experience, I will stick to that device, and carry another USB stick separately. And, to see the TimeScape functionality in a similar way on the iPhone, it is just a matter of days I am sure...
But to gain market share again, SE must come up with devices affordable at 50-100$ on contract extension i.e. subsidizing the remaining cost by an operator.
Currently, money will be made by content / data. Google has shown it's muscles, and it will be hard to compete for any manufacturer in that brutal market place. A good integration into the "Vodafone 360" story, or similar initiatives by other network operators, might help to gain some USP - partnering not competing against them (like Nokia does).
By the way - what's going on in NFC?
write a book.. serioulsy!
I loved a SE phone I had some years ago. However, SE seems to move in slow motion these days. It's almost like the made a decision to no longer compete.
Maybe if SE put their flagship phones with carries and their subsidies they wouldn't have this issue. Who wants to pay $600 for a phone when you can get a carrier subsidized one with 85% of the capabilities for $100? The ones they did put out were weak "music phones". Basically every phone is a music phone and as for the media interface.....who cares. Does it play music? That's all most people care about. All the extras like seeing the album cover, cool images being displayed in the background etc is a waste IMO.
I am SE die hard loyalist. I owned their T80. Then, I got the K-series phone and my wife has one of their clamshells. I really wished the XPERIA series had some oomph to it, but it didn't. If they don't release the X10 with a subsidy, again no one is going to shell out the 800$ it will require to own it. This is hoping SE releases the X10 in an affordable price range.
Not going well for Sony...
Their hurting in all aspects of their company, they are closing ericsson facilities, their share in the TV/electronic sales are dropping, they're auctioning off MGM, the PS3 is still in far last place, and Blu-ray isn't becoming the successor to DVD, but atleast they have the cell processor to fall back on... oh wait they sold that to Toshiba almost 2 years ago.
Supposedly a large group of the Sony marketing team is going to work for ProSmoke E-Cigarettes. 15 of the 20 people akwardly enough. There is a press release on www.ProSmokeStore.com
did you really just type "fixing to"?
Another company that could have been saved with a clearer direction on price points and U.S. marketing.
Next up, Nokia. Slowly, but surely.
A Playstation Phone could of turned this company around but for some reason Sony Corp seems to forget they own both Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Ericsson.
ATL, represent.
I have a SE cell phone and like it very much. Could not find a similar SE phone to replace another recently. I do not know what they do in their R&D centers, but I have not seen much products lately coming from Sony. Except the mini digital camera (Cyber-Shot) no smart phone, no iPod, no media player that can play MKV files, etc. Sony always makes good products but not much out there to buy. I have a lot of Sony products but that was several years back. Live long and prosper SONY!
RIP Sony Ericsson