Where Sony Ericsson went wrong (and how the Xperia X1 was an 'experiment')
They make movies about these things. Boy sees phone. Boy lusts after phone for months. Boy finally gets phone only to discover it's nice from afar but far from nice. OK, we've yet to see a movie quite like that. (But if they do, you bet Dieter and Mal will review it in the WMExperts Movie Review Podcast.)
No, we're talking about the Sony Xperia X1 here. It was announced with much pomp and circumstance but took months and months (and months and months) to come to market. And even then, it's gotten zero carrier support in the United States.
Turns out, the Xperia X1 was "a kind of experiment," said SE President Hideki "Dick" Komiyama. That's from a Financial Times piece [via Electronista] in which Komiyama speaks about SE's recent struggles and how it's failed to really compete in the smartphone industry.
But there's good news for you Windows Mobile fans: SE still plans to put out three smartphones by the end of the year – one Windows Mobile, one Android and one Symbian.
As anyone who's used one knows, it's not that the Xperia X1 (read our full review here) is a bad phone. It's just that it priced itself out of the game without bringing anything really groundbreaking. The panels interface is interesting, but it's just not enough to justify spending that much jing, especially today. Let's hope SE finds more of a middle ground (and U.S. carrier support) with its next try.
