News reaches of a new Sony Ericsson CyberShot phone being worked on for 2009. Currently codenamed the Kokura, it will apparently feature a whopping 12 megapixel camera, come complete with a touchscreen and iPhone-like interface, and will be based on the TI3240 chipset with the Symbian OS version 9.4 and S60 interface.
Also from the same source comes news of another Sony Ericsson CyberShot phone currently codenamed the Yurika. Apparently, this will be a message-based phone designed for the "yoof" market, and so will feature on easy access to Facebook, Yahoo!, YouTube, etc. As it's based aroud messaging, the Yurika will come with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well as a touchscreen and similar iPhone-like interface (again, based on S60) to the Kokura.
Interestingly, it'll move away from Memory Sticks towards the more universal SD card storage format, which represents a departure from Sony Ericsson's existing strategy of sticking with Sony's proprietary storage technology.
That said, neither phone will come with mini USB socket or 3.5mm headphone jack, relying instead on Sony Ericsson's usual proprietary connector, so they've not exactly rushed to embrace more open technology.
Truth or dare
Now, how true are these rumours? I received the tip via email, with no pictures and no indication of where the information came from, so they are, at these stage,entirely unverified rumours. However, the details in the tip aren't just very detailed: they're also mundane in parts as well, which to me, adds to their credibility.
By mundane, I mean specifying the TI chipset and the bit about the headphone jack. Anyone can invent a wishlist of amazing features, but including details about chipsets and what connectors a phone will have reveals a surprising level of detail that your average fanboy would never think of dreaming up.
The phones themselves fit rather well with Sony Ericsson's portfolio, too. Having announced a 12 megapixel camera phone for this year, it should be no surprise that a 12 megapixel one is being worked on, regardless of whether it'll be the Kokura or not.
So I'll remain skeptical until I can find out more about the source of these rumours, but my hunch is that they're not too far from the truth.
Sony Ericsson will lay off 450 workers from its Research Triangle Park location, the headquarters of the company’s North American operations.
Workers were told of the news Monday morning in a mandatory all-staff meeting at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham.
Aldo Ligouri, Sony Ericsson’s head of global communications and public relations, confirmed the layoffs. Ligouri says the RTP cuts are part of company-wide changes that Sony Ericsson announced in July. At that time, the company said it would lay off 2,000 workers worldwide to adjust to tough market conditions.
“This is our map of how we see things moving forward,” Ligouri said.
The company has about 750 workers in RTP, which serves as a key Sony Ericsson R&D hub. The handset maker, a joint venture between Japan’s Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Sweden’s Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC), has struggled in recent quarters. Waning demand for its high-end phones and product delays brought down profit to 6 million euros in the second quarter, down from 220 million euros a year earlier.
Sales also slumped in that quarter, to 2.82 billion euros, from 3.11 billion euros in the second quarter of 2007.
