Sony Ericsson P1i Blog

A New Project

2009-02-04T22:34:00.004+08:00

I apologise for not updating this blog since the end of last year, but with UIQ well and truly dead and a large decline in readership as well as the smart phone being dated, I decided to take a break before dedicating time to new and existing projects. This blog allowed me to gain a lot of insight within the smartphone and telecommunications industry, as well as determining the career I would like to pursue in the future.

Alright, enough of all that crap. I'd just like to announce that I've embarked on 2 new projects - S60 Developer, which hosts widgets and applications I've developed for the S60 v5.0 platform - for all those switchers who moved from the SE P1i to the new Nokia 5800XM (or those thinking of getting one!), and A Background Daily (which is not up yet) - providing high quality wallpapers for most popular desktop and mobile resolutions.

It's been great writing this blog and I hope you'll enjoy my new projects!

UIQ "Officially" Dead - Sony Ericsson

2008-10-23T01:06:00.004+08:00

Seems like SE has finally put an end to the Symbian UIQ platform, at least according to Patrick Olson from Sony Ericsson at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London this week.

The reason cited was that it failed to attract a steady fanbase as well as not being able to be rubberstamped by network providers as the 'platform of choice' for business users. In his own words...

Or rather it didn't make it. Another oxbow lake in the mobile industry story. Sad.

The other shareholder in the UIQ platform, Motorola, abstained from making any comments.

Now that it's "official", I suppose all support from SE for these platforms will cease quite soon. Perhaps we won't ever see another firmware update for the G900/G700 and the P1?

Source: GSMArena

Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta for UIQ Released!

2008-10-18T19:12:00.006+08:00

The link is finally out! After waiting for months and months - since the start of this year in fact - it's finally released! Click here to go to the Opera Mobile Products page; the download link is halfway down the page.

I haven't downloaded yet, but I will do so as soon as I'm freer from work.

Note: Some strangeness abound: it's only the 18th of October, 2008 - but if you look at the first picture of this post, it says "Last Updated: 20.10.2008". But who cares...as long as we've got Opera Mobile 9.5 to download.

Nokia 5800 vs SE P1i: Analysis

2008-10-18T18:38:00.003+08:00

With the impending release of Nokia's first touchscreen S60 phone, the 5800 XpressMusic (otherwise known as the 'Tube' further in this post), it just seems like the phone that will blow the P1i completely out of the water. Here's a dissection/analysis based on first impressions from various Youtube videos, pictures and reviews from the last month.

On paper, it's definitely as good as SE's P1 ex-flagship - with the Xperia X1 now taking over as SE's flagship phone - if not even better. A 3.2" 16 Million colour screen, 3.2 Megapixel Camera, Quad-band GSM, Support for HSDPA, WiFi (b/g), Built-in GPS, 3.5mm headphone support, OFFICIAL support for Flash...the list can go on. Oh yes, and it's only going for 279 Euros (before subsidies or taxes).

Technically, both phones target different segments of the market - the Tube cutting it for the music fans looking for a cheap and all-in-one music playing device, whilst the P1 is definitely for the business segment, with a QWERTY keyboard and support for Blackberry Connect. No matter how hard you try, a physical QWERTY keyboard is definitely more appealing than a touch screen solution, simply because by being able to feel it, you can always type with much more accuracy and speed.

But above all the desirable hardware, it runs Symbian S60 - and this probably won't cut it for many others, who have had a bad experience with S60 in the past (me included). This brings us to the OS discussion; S60 vs UIQ. The UIQ has been around for quite a while, optimised for touch screen phones (since the days of the P800) while this is S60's first attempt for touchscreen smartphones. Granted, some users may be willing to overlook some of the poorly implemented elements in the Tube's OS because it's the first S60 touch platform, but most users just want it to work out of the box.

With UIQ now part of the Symbian Foundation, I hope some of S60's best aspects rub off on it - i.e. the S60 browser, the customisation, etc. If Nokia puts this new UIQ on the Tube, I think I'm sold.

What do you readers think?

UIQ on Xperia?

2008-09-16T19:46:00.003+08:00

Sorry about the lack of updates, it's been quite hectic here getting everything ready for my studies.

Anyways, back to the main story - turns out the Xperia X1 product manager Magnus Andersson has said something important:

"The brand is not tied into any specific technical platform,"

This is definitely good news for all users who prefer the UIQ platform over Windows Mobile. After all, now that UIQ is part of the Symbian Foundation of which Sony Ericsson is a committed member of, it opens up the possibility of a UIQ version of the Xperia X1, or future models in the Xperia series.

The Reuters news report also the date of release in Europe as well:

Sony Ericsson, which denied earlier this month the X1 would miss the key Christmas sales period, reiterated on Monday that the phone would start shipping to Britain, Germany and Sweden on September 30. It declined to give prices.

Yes, and also for interested users living in America - here's a piece of information that you may wish to keep in mind.

An announcement about North America -- a market Sony Ericsson has said it would make a top priority this year -- will be made on November 3, a spokeswoman said.

Source: Reuters

SE P1i Blog: 1 Year On

2008-09-11T10:56:00.005+08:00

Thank you to all my loyal readers - the Sony Ericsson P1i Blog is now (finally!) 1 year old. The blog has gone a long way from just being updated during my Computer Science class when my teacher wasn't looking to getting around 100,000 pageviews a month, with over 1000 subscribers following the blog daily according to Feedburner. It's gone over 2 major redesigns, 1 extremely believable April Fools Joke, lots and lots of emails, 2 major hiatuses (I apologise to all readers for that) - but it's still going on, because you readers still want it around. Also a big thank you to asri and ares from UIQBlog for the news and tips on the Symbian UIQ platform.

And yes, just to reaffirm things, I have no intention of closing this blog or stopping the updates even though I will be having a change of scenary (from Hong Kong to UK as I will be attending university there). I will try to keep to the schedule of getting at least a few posts up every week, so stay tuned on the blog.

Drop me an email if you've got any suggestions on how I should improve the blog or if you want me to analyse and discuss particular news/features regarding the P1.

XPERIA X1 to launch on Sept. 30, Doomsday for P1?

2008-09-10T18:56:00.005+08:00

And in other news that's remotely connected to the Sony Ericsson P1, we have the specific release date for SE's incoming business flagship model. Yes, the XPERIA X1 is finally launching on September the 30th.

Sweden, Germany, and the UK will be the inaugural launch sites come September 30, with no fewer than 32 more on tap in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America for the fourth quarter of the year. North America, China, Australia, and Russia are also listed as committed launch regions, though dates for those will be announced "in the coming months" -- scary verbiage considering that they weren't even willing to slap the Q4 label there.

I just wonder how many of you readers will feel compelled to switch. Will this signify the real end of the SE P1? Not likely, if the cost is exactly what MobileCity is offering to interested users. Just brace yourself and be prepared to pay a huge premium if you're getting it on the day it's coming out.

Source: Engadget

Strong industry support for Symbian Foundation

2008-09-10T17:57:00.002+08:00

Turns out that UIQ wasn't part of the Symbian Foundation, at least not official, until just earlier on today. With the additional endorsements by large mobile phone industry companies such as Opera, Sharp, UIQ, etc. a few hours earlier, there's a total of 40 companies now involved with the Symbian Foundation.

From the Press Release:

Since plans for the Symbian Foundation were announced, hundreds of organizations have registered their interest in joining the foundation via the website at www.symbianfoundation.org.
As previously announced, the plans for the establishment of the Symbian Foundation and royalty-free licensing of foundation software are:
The acquisition of Symbian Limited by Nokia, expected to close in Q4, 2008, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Software assets are contributed to the foundation, including Symbian OS and S60 by Nokia, UIQ technology by Motorola and Sony Ericsson and MOAP(S) by NTT DOCOMO and Fujitsu.

This contributed software will be available under a royalty-free license to foundation members from the first day of Symbian Foundation operations, expected 1H 2009.

The Foundation will work to unify the platform, with the first unified foundation release expected in 2009.

The foundation will work to make the platform available in open source by June 2010 (two years from the Symbian Foundation announcement)

Source: Symbian

Application Porting Tutorials

2008-09-09T06:35:00.000+08:00

If you're a novice programmer or just have too much spare time on your hands, then maybe it's worth checking this out - a developer's guide to application development on the UIQ platform. Oh yes, and several porting guides that you may want to read to help out with porting great apps to the UIQ platform so all of us in the UIQ community can benefit. Specifically, porting from Symbian S60 to the UIQ platform and porting applications to the UIQ platform in general.

Hopefully this post does reach out to several UIQ developers, because below is a list of applications that definitely needs to be ported to the UIQ 3 platform. I'm no great programmer myself, but I might be able to help on some of the projects..

Joikuspot - Turn your phone (WiFi enabled) in to a wireless hotspot so other devices can connect via the phone's 3G connection.
Nokia's Internet Radio - to listen to all those awesome radio streams easily.
Nokia Conversation - god would I love a free threaded SMS app.
Mobitubia - I think all of us have been waiting for an integrated Youtube client..

Any other software that you think needs to be ported?

Symbian UIQ 3 Modding Tutorial

2008-09-08T12:15:00.000+08:00

For those readers who are newer to this blog and isn't very sure on how to mod or hack your Sony Ericsson P1, I recommend reading this post by strizlow800 on the Easto forums. It's a post on installing Capswitch (developed by swmail), which gives the users unlimited access to protected files and folders on the phone, and a Symbian OS 9.1 override to allow users to install unsigned applications. In 'iPhone terms', to Jailbreak your P1.

It's always nice to see members within the P1 community giving a helping hand to those who are new here :) My thanks to strizlow800.

Last of the SE P1 firmware updates?

2008-09-08T02:49:00.000+08:00

I've only ever updated my firmware 3 times on my Sony Ericsson P1 - first it was the upgrade to R9H, then R9J and lastly R9K. 3 firmware updates in the space of more than a year. How's that for complete product support?

Let's compare it with another one of the older Sony Ericsson flagship products, the P990. 2 firmware updates in its entire lifespan as the flagship product. And in the end, it was hardly perfect - more like a perfectly flawed smart phone (which incidently prompted some to purchase the P1).

With the G700/G900 filling in the void which the P1 never filled, it seems unlikely that us P1 users will ever see a firmware update fixing the bugs that was always there. The M600 and the W950 were the only UIQ smartphones to receive a bundle of software updates, and the only reason was due to the fact that there were irreplaceable UIQ phones, until their successors the P1 and the W960 was released (Incidentally once the P1 and the W960 was released firmware updates for both phones were stopped). Now that the G900 and the G700 are filling in the P1's shoes, it doesn't seem likely that the P1 will ever get another firmware update.

On an additional note, I happened to pass by the Sony Ericsson customer center here in Hong Kong and upon asking for the status of the P1 and whether updates were available, the reply was "P1? I would wait for the XPERIA if I were you".

Adobe Flash animations now work on the P1

2008-09-07T22:27:00.004+08:00

Yep, it's official. Thanks to developer/modder/hacker swmail, the person also behind porting Walkman 3 to the Sony Ericsson P1 as well as the hack to allow unsigned apps to be installed, we've now gotten a port of the SE G700/G900 Flash firmware support. Basically this means that the P1 can now play swf files (not flv files for now) - a massive 'breakthrough' for current P1 users who can enjoy a much closer experience to full web browsing on the 'old' Opera.

Alright, installation instructions are as below (taken from swmail's readme):

Install CapsSwitch and 'SIS installer mod for Symbian 9.1'.
Download archive with the program from http://www.agathosyne.de/files_ext/FlashPlugin.zip
Install FlashPlugin.
Start Opera
Go to More >> Settings >> Configuration >> and tick "Allow Plugins"
Enjoy Flash support!

Shame on you SE. We expected an attempt from the manufacturers to get Flash on the P1, but I guess in the end it's gotta be the independent devs who bail you out. Guess we can't expect anything decent from you guys anymore after the announcement to push UIQ to the Symbian Foundation...

Oh yes, and a big thanks to swmail. If you like his work please donate to encourage him to continue :)

Update: My bad, a big thanks to ares and asri from UIQBlog

Notice

2008-09-07T22:23:00.000+08:00

~~Due to personal reasons, I will not be available for the next few days - so there will be no blog posts until next week. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.~~

Update: For those of you who are wondering where I was, I had a bit of a problem with universities because I missed my conditional offers. It's been resolved now, and I've updated my "About" page if you're interested in where I'm going and stuff.

My apologies to all for being MIA for a better part of the month. Rest be assured that this blog will continue to operate until I get less than 10 hits a day because everyone's moved on from their Sony Ericsson P1...

Digia @Web 1.0.1 Released

2008-08-12T23:46:00.002+08:00

Good news! Digia's released an updated beta version of their @Web browser for the UIQ 3 platform; below is a copy of the change log taken from their support page: (note that you must sign in to see the change log)

Pages can be loaded with or without images (setting item)
Bookmark list now supports kinetic scrolling
Bookmark URL size is increased to 258 characters
Flash disabled (was accidentially enabled in Beta 1 causing some problems in pages with flash content)
Panning improvements
Stability improvements
URL fix when navigating back and forward
Zoom interaction improvement

Guess what this means? Another review that you can look forward to in these couple of days. Again I shall take it for a spin along against Opera v8.65 and Opera Mini.

And just to be sure that everyone read the small print on Digia's support page:

Our plan is to provide the third beta in September.

I'm definitely looking forward to that. Aren't you?

UIQ Themes from Paris "P5"

2008-08-09T13:25:00.001+08:00

ares over from the UIQ Evangelist has gotten hold of the very slick theme that some of you might have seen running on Sony Ericsson's cancelled Paris "P5" UIQ 3 smart phone.

To be honest, I think Sony Ericsson at the very least should make these themes public, even if they made the choice to cancel the phones. Some of the themes do look excellent in my opinion, so why not offer it to their existing customers?

The theme is available from the UIQ Evangelist - a big thank you to ares and asri for hosting it!

Longcuts 0.8 Released

2008-08-09T13:18:00.002+08:00

You might recall that some very distant time ago I introduced this nifty app Longcuts, which is an application that binds other applications to keyboard shortcuts. Version 0.8 of the software has just been released a few days ago, and here's the change log from the previous version:

Major bugs fixed.
Registration mechanism added.
About box added :).
Loading on boot option is removed.
Making the app system is made optional.

You can download the application here.

Sony Ericsson P1 Prices - How much?

2008-08-06T15:11:00.002+08:00

With Sony Ericsson now focusing on the Xperia and dropping the P-series, how is the sales of Sony Ericsson P1's faring in your country? It's now currently going for HK$2500 (US$320) from mobile phone stores (with full 1 year warranty), while if you get a "water-good" (also known as grey products or parallel imports) P1 (i.e. without a Hong Kong warranty), it's as cheap as HKD$1900 (US$244).

At this rate, I presume it might come free if you sign a 2 year contract with carriers by the end of this year.

It's a good time for potential smart phone users to climb aboard. After all, there are plenty of great apps out there (just search categories on this blog, as well as other ones) that enhance the overall experience on the P1, and it's a really functional, multi-usable PDA phone for business and casual users. And it's rather inexpensive too!

So how much is a Sony Ericsson P1 smart phone going for in your country?

QIP ICQ Client for UIQ 3

2008-08-06T14:57:00.002+08:00

Although I myself don't use ICQ, I know it remains a very popular choice for IM between groups of people - so here's a new application called QIP which is a ICQ client for the UIQ 3 platform.

There's not a lot of choices when it goes down to using ICQ - eBuddy doesn't support it, and you've got to pay to use IM+ or Agile Messenger, so QIP fits in to that void we've got. The website doesn't give a lot of information (partly because the whole thing is in Russian, and Google Translate doesn't give much help), apart from support for proxies, emoticons, and something about status messages.

The daring ones should give this one a try.

Source: SE4EVA.ru [English Translation by Google Translate]

Documents To Go 4 for UIQ3 Review [Part 1]

2008-08-03T23:00:00.007+08:00

So in the last few days I've been putting Documents 2 Go through some rigid testing (and playing around) to see how well it fairs - and I'm rather impressed with the copy I downloaded, despite it only being a trial version. It seems DataViz seems to have got this app spot on with regards to business users; but enough of my praising - let me show some screenshots first of the app.

Installation of Documents To Go is fairly straightforward and easy - once it's installed (which can be done by transferring the SISX file to your memory stick or via the PC Suite), three different apps will appear under the 'Tools' folder - DocumentsToGo Sheet/Slide/Word. The three apps allow for the editing and creation of Word, Excel and Powerpoint files on the go on your smart phone.

In the first part I'll elaborate more about DocumentsToGo Sheet app first: it really is rather fantastic and easy to use. As you can see from above, the interface bears a bit of resemblance to QuickOffice, which comes along on the SE P1 phones, so it shouldn't be too much of challenge for first time business users. However, the user gets a couple more options in customising the Word Document compared to QuickOffice - for example, inserting page breaks, bookmarks, hyperlinks, manipulating tables, etc.

Opening existing Word Documents was extremely easy and intuitive, and the support for older Word files (XP) as well as the newer version of MS Word makes this a very powerful utility app for those who need to regularly edit and manipulate Word Documents on the go.

One major flaw that would hinder the overall experience that I found in this app was that when creating a new document and inputing characters in to the document, every letter would appear to be in uppercase, if the user has set Auto-Capitalisation on. The workaround is to turn off Auto-Capitalisation in order to get all the letters to appear in lowercase - it's very tedious and frustrating if you've got alot to input, and it more or less defeats the purpose of auto-capitalisation (which does not mean capitalising every letter). I presume an update and fix for this problem is in the works.

Overall, I found the experience of using this app a pleasure (save for the capitalisation problem) and definitely gives QuickOffice a run for its money. Hardcore Office users and Business users would love this application.

Bergamot Project finished for UIQ

2008-07-31T22:27:00.003+08:00

In a sad turn of events, developer teknolog of the Bergamot Project (who's created the podcast app Escarpod for UIQ 3) has announced that he will be redirecting his efforts for the Symbian platform and not exclusively for UIQ. The following statement was posted on his website:

As of July 2008, it is clear that UIQ will not be a significant platform in the future, and has been all but abandoned by handset makers. Following this, I am considering moving the Bergamot Project over to the S60 platform, which will become the basis of the future Symbian Platform. This would include an S60 port of Escarpod.

Escarpod for UIQ will still be kept updated for the near future, but we will not start any new UIQ projects within the Bergamot project.

It's sad that the UIQ platform has now come to this - with major open source developers fleeing to develop on a differing platform...

M610 Themes for UIQ 3

2008-07-28T15:03:00.000+08:00

Courtesy of some users on Esato Forums, there are now 3 themes available from the M610 prototype that us P1 users can download and use.

Black Test Theme

Blue Test Theme

Brown Test Theme

PowerMP3 Public Beta Trials

2008-07-28T11:42:00.003+08:00

Mobifactor, the devs of PowerMovie, have announced the public beta trial of another upcoming software: PowerMP3. I've just started downloading and installing the app so I don't have any screenshots yet (but I will upload them in a while).

So what makes this better than the built in P1 music player? 3 things: a direct link which allows you to locate album art from the Internet; allowing to set moods for particular songs; as well as having spectrum art for your songs. There's also OGG support for your music files as well (as of the current version, it only supports MP3, M4A, OGG).

As usual, its still in beta, so don't expect to see miracles from the software right now. If you do manage to find a major bug, you should report it - the devs will give you a free copy of the final version since you've 'did your part' and 'contributed' in some way.

It seems quite promising, but so far its not enough to challenge the Walkman software that we have hacked on our P1's...however, if you've got a lot of time on your hands, or just feeling adventurous, why not try this software out for yourself?

...and the Xperia X1 will be released in Oct 2008

2008-07-25T11:03:00.003+08:00

Here it is, guys and gals. The one that we've all been waiting for to success the Sony Ericsson P1. According to the French website GPSandCo, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 will be formally released on October 13th, 2008, at an initial price of 700 Euros.

The tipping points of this phone is the quad-band GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900), quad-band HSPDA and HSUPA (850/1700/1900/2100 or 900/1700/1900/2100) support. Oh yes, and also a WGA resolution screen (800 x 480) and a 1500mAh battery.

It seems like SE is now back to the forefront of technology (albeit extremely pricey). Let's hope for large carrier subsidies so the phone can reach the masses.

My thanks goes to Juanma for tipping me off on this news.

Source: GPSandCo - French
Source: GPSandCo - English Translation

Samsung Omnia vs. Sony Ericsson P1

2008-07-24T23:21:00.005+08:00

So this article marks the start of my series - moving on from the Sony Ericsson P1. I'm not sure how long I'll make the series, since new phones can more or less spring up anytime from Ericsson's competitors, but it'll span at least a few articles.

I don't really enjoy writing this (probably because I've become quite attached to my P1, it occupies a special place in my heart), but it is starting to feel aged compared to gadgets released on the market right now. I just can't seem to get around the fact that it's less that a year old too, and yet the smart phone's specifications make it seem as though its an elder standing next to the new kids of this generation.

So first up, the band support: the Omnia boasts quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, as well as 2 different HSDPA bands (one for Europe/Asia and one for America. Just to clarify, the Omnia will be released in 2 different versions for the different regions). With that said, I don't think I should bring up the connectivity options of the SE P1; it's clear which one is the winner here.

Operating System: the Omnia runs on WM 6.1 Professional, whilst the SE P1 runs on Symbian UIQ. And it seems the majority of my readers prefer the WM platform, as seen on the survey on the right hand side...I do concede that I don't have much experience using the WM platform (the last WM platform I used was WM 5 and I found it...less than satisfactory compared to Symbian), but with WM 6 getting quite a number of positive reviews it seems that it is the platform of choice, whether it being for business or multimedia.

Also, with the UIQ platform now being part of the Symbian Foundation, it doesn't seem quite likely that it'll receive the support or attention that the WM platform currently enjoys, so the Omnia has the lead over the P1 in this aspect.

Software: Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are equally as many WM apps as there are for Symbian UIQ, if not more. And because the WM marketshare is larger than UIQ, I suppose many more are free too.

Appearance: the Omnia reminds me of a certain, widely recognised icon which I need not mention. It's very streamlined, and fits nicely in one's hand. On the other hand, it lacks a physical keyboard, which is a great inhibitor for some business users or hardcore texters - nothing beats the feeling of actually TOUCHING the keys knowing that you've typed them in. With real, solid keys, if one is familiar with the keyboard style and layout, one doesn't need to look when typing. And when something goes wrong with the touchscreen, the phone is still usable until you get to the service center.

So the score is 2-1 to the Omnia. I do think the above analysis is personal preference - some users really find that a virtual keyboard is great, while others don't. I fall in the latter, and hence the narrowing of the Omnia's lead. But feel free to skip this opinion if you don't find the keyboard as a obstacle to the overall experience of the smart phone.

Memory Stick: well, it's just basically microSD vs. Sony's M2. Memory stick companies are currently planning to release 16GB memory sticks for mobile phones, so it's more or less a draw. But because there are more devices in the market supporting microSD memory sticks, prices tend to be cheaper too. Just keep that in mind.

Other hardware worth mentioning: the Samsung Omnia supports WLAN 802.11 b/g, a drastic improvement over the P1 as you can get faster speeds over the wireless network. Internal memory is also another thing - there are 2 models of the Omnia available, the 8GB version and the 16GB version, which gives it another advantage over the P1 (imagine 16GB + 32GB microSDHC! That's 48GB of music, photos, etc). Oh yes, need I mention the integrated GPS, the 3.2 inch touch screen, and an accelerometer? Throw in the 3.5mm headphone jack too; it's also part of the package.

Conclusion: I think I'm sold. And with a release date of July 2008 (later on this month), in retrospect it's about time to let my P1 go. Pitting the SE P1 against the Samsung Omnia makes it look like a grandfather.

And for those who want to know more, you can read an in depth review of the Samsung Omnia by GSMArena here.

Why Sony Ericsson smart phones fail (or failing)

2008-07-23T00:30:00.002+08:00

Maybe the title doesn't sound so nice, but that's the same with reality - harsh and cruel (and no, this is not about my life experiences). I've also decided to start an ongoing series - this article, as well as an upcoming one comparing the P1 with current options in the market. So stay on the lookout!

Since the days of the P800 (which captured many business people's imaginations) to the P910, we've seen a high level success from SE's smart phones. Then we saw the epic failure of the P990i, and the relatively small success from the remaining M600, W950, P1 and the W960. So why did Sony Ericsson's success turn in to failure? Here's my verdict on this:

Product Differentiation - since some far ago time (which I can't recall), SE decided to split their successful phones in to 2 series; the K series, for Kameraphone, and the W series, for the Walkman phones (and some other small series which isn't much relevant here). While it's good for marketing and appealing to a wide range of audiences, people who want the flagship products tend to want everything in the phone, from multimedia to business features.

Yep, if the W960 and the P1 was combined in to a single product, it might have been an outstanding success. That's why you see all the hacks and ports of the W960 apps to the P1. C'mon Sony, if I'm shelling out HK$4000+ to get the top of the range phone, I expect it to have everything. EVERYTHING. Otherwise why would it cost so much?
Announcement to Product Delivery - Lets see, the W960 was announced a full half a year before it finally hit the selected markets at the end of 2007. The Xperia was announced in February; but it doesn't seem to be anywhere close to delivery until probably after this coming quarter. In the meantime, while SE is busy manufacturing these phones, it's competitors are already making big noise in announcing and releasing phones of the similar calibre.

For example, the Apple iPhone 3G was announced and available with a month or 2 after the press conference. There was also plenty of marketing to generate all the hype for the phone; in contrast, there was nothing like that for the P1. In fact, I wasn't aware myself that the P1 was going to be released until AFTER August in 2007, when I happened to walk past my local Smartone-Vodafone provider store.
Updates are few and far - how many firmware updates have we gone through on the P1? I think I can count all of them in one hand. And that's not the only problem; the updates don't add new functionality to the phone. Nor does it smooth out all the bugs that come along as a result of poor coding.

I think 2 issues immediately spring to mind: the green tint issue (which incidentally SE never commented on) and the WLAN access point problem (which SE is still strangely silent about). You can't expect customers to say loyal to a company that doesn't offer to fix problems in it's flagship products, can you?

So that's my opinion on why SE is currently down in the doldrums in the smart phone market. Hopefully the Xperia (and a little bit of luck) will give it the uplift it so desperately needs right now.

Stay tuned for the next part in my series - Moving on from the Sony Ericsson P1!