Sony Ericsson UK Chief Says 16 New Phones to be launched in Year 2010

Sony Ericsson’s Managing Director for the UK & Ireland, Nathan Vautier, recently gave an interview to Mobile Today, a British industry publication, in which he revealed that Sony Ericsson, in the UK at least, would be offerring around 26 handsets this year. Now 10 of those handsets are apparently models from last year as is usually the case with most manufacturers. However, a good 16 or so will be new handsets, only some of which we have seen. There is the ‘Fab 5′ of course, the X10, Vivaz and their mini spawn that were unleashed at MWC. Mr Vautier said that a fe wof the unannounced handsets would be Walkman branded and would be priced somewhere in the £100 range. That means they’re most likely to be in the mid-range of the market, an area where Sony Ericsson seems to be struggling at the moment, and it also means that the Walkman brand isn’t going anywhere as some may have wondered after the introduction of devices in the Xperia range with their lack of Walkman and/or Cybershot branding.

Mr Vautier also addressed the issue of quality control, an area that Sony Ericsson has come in for numerous bad press reports over the past year or so. He made mention of a revised quality assurance procedure with a greater focus on ensuring that devices were up to scratch and also said that the components process had been streamlined so that fewer parts were being used. All in all the responses did feel as if he was taking the matter seriously, but there were too few specifics on how things are to be turned around.