Sony Ericsson's camera-phone delayed
By Reuters
September 17, 2002, 6:09 AM PT
Sony Ericsson's flagship P800 camera-phone will go on sale before Christmas rather than by the end of this month, company executives said Tuesday, declining to explain why.
The delay is another blow to the loss-making joint venture, which is struggling to compete in a stagnant market with No. 1 cell phone maker Nokia, which is already selling a camera phone.
Sony Ericsson was created last year from the handset units of Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson and Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony. The joint venture was to start selling the P800 phone--a combination of a personal digital assistant, a digital camera and a phone--in the third quarter.
"We will not deliver any units in the third quarter," said Per Alksten, Sony Ericsson's product manager for Sweden. He said the delay was not caused by any technical or software glitches in the handset, which will compete on the market with Nokia's 7650 and 3650 camera-phones.
"We will start shipping the P800 to operators in the next few weeks, and it will be available in shops in the fourth quarter. The precise timing depends on individual markets," Alksten said.
Peter Bodor, a spokesman for Sony Ericsson in London, said the phone will be in stores before Christmas and it will come out in volume in the first quarter of 2003.
The success of the P800 is important for the joint venture to keep open the funding lines from its parents. Both Sony and Ericsson are committed to invest more than $480 million each in the joint venture until October 2003.
But Ericsson Chief Executive and Sony Ericsson Chairman Kurt Hellstrom has recently said Ericsson would not keep throwing money at the company if its products do not win acceptance on the market over the next two to three quarters.
Despite the success of its T68 and T68i color-screen mobile handsets, Sony Ericsson has been losing market share over the last 12 months.
Analysts said the delay should be seen as more harmful in terms of branding and marketing rather than revenue.
"I don't think it will prove critical to the joint venture's business model. It's more branding and marketing which a flagship product can give. People look at it and say, 'Oh! That's fantastic.' But you don't really sell of a lot of such phones," one London analyst said.
Sony Ericsson is planning to launch its less sophisticated T300 and T600 models later this year.
Quelle
Ich sag mal nix 
gruss,
Jimbo
