Interview with Sony Ericsson

Finally, at the end of the year we are publishing our interview with Sony Ericsson‘s representatives. Our questions are answered by Mats Lindoff – Sony Ericsson’s CTO, and Mimmis Olsson – the company’s spokesperson on mobile content and Communications Manager for Sony Ericsson Developer World. They discuss UIQ 3 related issues and see the big, smarter future…

Q: Sony Ericsson has recently acquired UIQ technology. Personally, I expect to see more UIQ 3-based devices in the future and am keeping my eyes open for the 3GSM. What are your plans with the UIQ? (something you can reveal)

Mats Lindoff: One year ago 9% of the total phone market were smartphones. The prediction is that in 2009 smartphones will be 27% of the total market. That’s a pretty huge volume and given Sony Ericsson’s growth – as proven by the record profits and sales in the third quarter 2006 – we’d expect our own share of that market to be substantial by 2009.

By acquiring UIQ Technology we will further invest and exploit the full potential of UIQ on Symbian OS for phone vendors, mobile operators, developers and consumers. UIQ will continue to be licensed to other manufacturers on equal terms to all its licensees, including Sony Ericsson itself. Our main ambitions for UIQ is to establish it as a leading UI (framework) in the mobile phone industry licensed by several phone vendors. Thanks to UIQ 3 it has been possible for us to use the same code platform to create phones addressing different target segments. The M600 and W950 are important steps for reaching out to new consumer segments and achieve higher sales volumes than what has previously been possible with the P series of smartphones. And you will see more from us in this area in 2007.

Q: What do you do to bring new applications to the UIQ 3 platform?

Mimmis Olsson: Sony Ericsson Developer World today supports the global developer community with technical resources to stimulate creative applications in both C++ and Java ME in five main focus areas: Music & sound related apps, Productive mobility & web communication, Gaming, Imaging and Mobile TV & Video.

Sony Ericsson Developer World has been very active in supporting UIQ developers ever since the P800 days. We recently launched to a new web section, application gallery and RSS feed to energize UIQ 3 business and productivity application development . The market for productive mobility applications based on UIQ 3 is growing fast and Sony Ericsson Developer World gives developers a head start by providing all all the tools, support and go-to-market opportunities they need to get started. There are a lot of free help and tools available to reduce development costs and time to market. Sony Ericsson Developer World today offers the UIQ 3 SDK, Sony Ericsson extensions, a special interest paper on porting to UIQ 3 from UIQ 2.x and other platforms, a tutorial for using Web Services on UIQ 3, an OpenGL ES SDK, close to 40 tips and code examples for UIQ 3 development, and valuable discussion forums and Wiki on its portal.

When it comes to distribution, we have decided to preload some applications from partners on our new UIQ 3 phones, but there will always be a need for a broad range of applications giving end users freedom of choice to download more, so we are actively stimulating new development from third party software developers through various activities. The M600 messaging device, P990 smartphone and W950 Walkman phone all have third party applications offered with the phones (on Memory Stick for P990 and M600 and on CD for W950) as free Try & Buy versions, with direct links to the Sony Ericsson Application Shop for download and purchase of the full versions. This concept has proven effective to stimulate interest among consumers for using and downloading applications. The PlayNow service is another important Sony Ericsson initiative to stimulate OTA download directly from the phone. Games, ringtones and other popular content can be downloaded via PlayNow and we are also launching OTA full-track music download for W950 through this service.

Operator feedback and statistics from Handango in 2005 demonstrated that Sony Ericsson’s previous UIQ phones generated as much as 4-5 times higher ARPU than regular voice-centric mobile phones. The initial uptake in the new Motricity-powered Application Shop supports the belief that this trend will continue for the new UIQ 3 phones and the average purchase order in the Sony Ericsson Application Shop is currently over 42 USD, with the downloads for the new UIQ 3 phones representing 85% of the UIQ application sales. End-users of this type of phone are generally interested in using it to its fullest potential.

Q: How do you see a buyer of a Sony Ericsson smartphone? Can you reveal us a bit of the information describing (profiling) an ideal user of Symbian UIQ 3-based device?

Mimmis Olsson: With UIQ 3 it has been possible to create a broader line-up of UIQ phones addressing different consumer segments. The P990 smartphone builds on Sony Ericsson’s successful smartphone track record with the P800, P900 and P910 and is based on the same proven concept and form factor. Application sales trends show that Sony Ericsson P-series smartphone end-users are the most-likely Symbian OS consumer group to purchase software to add to their phones. P990 is our most advanced smartphone, a full-fledged power house with high quality, 2 megapixel digital camera and WiFi, giving users the possibility to use for example the Business Card Scanner and downloading and sending e-mails with heavy attachments using regular office solutions on mobile. For these users, downloading applications comes natural and using office applications to view and edit e-mail attachments like Word, Excel and Powerpoint files to stay productive while on the road is very important to them. They also frequently use travel companions and mobile navigation applications, advanced Internet browsing and web services.

The M600 messaging device offers end-users true e-mail, browsing and messaging mobility, recognizing the strong market demand for mid-range, mass-market phones with enhanced messaging capabilities. The M600 is a dedicated messaging device for business users who do not require a camera but want effective wireless messaging options like push e-mail and productive means of handling attachments, doing their expense reports and finding their way between sales meetings on the go.

The W950 Walkman is the first Symbian OS-based phone in the Sony Ericsson Walkman phone range, enabling a wider market group to discover the potential of an open OS for entertainment-based rather than productivity-related applications. As of Q3 2006, in total more than 15 million Sony Ericsson Walkman phones had been sold. Sony Ericsson has seen a tremendous growth in 2006 and now offers 10 Walkman phone models including the W950. The W950 Walkman phone targets music lovers who require lots of space (4GB onboard flash memory) for their music, an easy-to-use interface to browse and search their music, possibility to access online web services and stay connected with similar minds by checking e-mail or chat. These users are interested in being part of the buzz and helping break new artists, downloading selected M-BUZZ content via Sony Ericsson PlayNow as well as playing 3D games and using other types of multimedia entertainment.

The open Symbian OS and UIQ 3 software platform is an ideal environment for all of this, allowing very flexible multi-tasking possibilities.

Q: The “smartphone wars” are starting. We have Symbian OS divided between S60 and UIQ UIs, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Blackberry and Linux. Where do you see Sony Ericsson’s smartphones in the large picture? Why should one pick Sony Ericsson’s smartphone and not some else’s?

Mats Lindoff: First of all, the Symbian OS today has a 78% market-share in the smartphone market, which is good testimonial as to how powerful this open operating system is. It’s been built from the ground up for mobile. Sony Ericsson is fully committed to Symbian OS and UIQ as the best “smarter phone” platform with intuitive touch screen and PDA like interface familiar to many users of productivity applications. We have a good track record of previous smartphones being high ARPU drivers, and historically smartphones have been most popular among advanced users. The new UIQ 3 platform has however enabled us to address a broader range of consumer segments. We therefore believe that we will help drive the concept of smartphones into more mass-market user groups. Whilst the acquisition of UIQ and following investments will increase the possibilities of competing directly with S60 on Symbian OS, Nokia is by no means our only targeted competitor; proprietary operating systems like Windows Mobile and Linux are other, equally important, competitors. The UIQ software platform has proven to be very attractive to the developer community. Nearly 30% of UIQ apps on previous smartphones were ported from Palm and Pocket PC, and developers on these platforms have a great opportunity to reuse their skill sets for UIQ 3.

Mimmis Olsson: For more and more people, a Sony Ericsson UIQ 3-based phone is their number one tool for personal and enterprise productivity. No matter if it’s a P990 smartphone, an M600 messaging device or a W950 Walkman, they use it to stay in touch and stay up to date. To find new business ideas and to find their way around. And to have loads of fun in between all the hard work. Besides large screens, lots of memory and the intuitive touch screen user interface, Sony Ericsson’s UIQ 3 phones come with loads of features – for users and for developers of all sorts of applications, not only using native application programming interfaces (API’s) in C++ but also advanced Java CDC (Connected Device Configuration) and CLDC (Connected Limited Device Configuration) as well as advanced hardware accelerated 3D gaming using the cross-platform OpenGL ES API.

In July 2006, M:Metrics, who measure the audience for mobile media, reported that large percentages of smartphone end-users who consume mobile content are not just using productivity applications but are increasingly using their powerful phones to view video, play mobile games, listen to music, send e-mail and access the web. With research firms such as Canalys seeing a continuing shift toward converged, smart mobile devices in which Symbian is the leading OS, and Gartner reporting that mobile e-mail use is increasing by moving from the business user to the more mainstream consumer market, the argument for developing applications for mobile phones that support these market trends is clear. And this is where the three Sony Ericsson UIQ 3-based phones come in. The UIQ 3 based phones certainly compete with for example the BlackBerry device but our phones have the benefit of being based on an open software platform where you can use third party applications to effectively handle attachments, meaning not only opening and reading them but also editing them on the go, as well as using other features you have come to expect of a mobile phone, full HTML web browser in landscape mode and various entertainment features.The software developer community targeting these types of phones is very active and creative which means that users will have a constant flow of new applications to choose from, enriching their mobile lifestyle experience and allowing them to personalize the use of their phone to the largest possible extent.

Q: Symbian’s Nigel Clifford and David Wood talked about the smartphone lifestyle. David even coined the term “Generation S”. What’s you take on that? How do you see the “smartphone-enabled” individual in the next 3-5 years?

Mats Lindoff: Our vision for the future is home entertainment based on IP communication and everything becoming addressable by devices we will all carry – eventually. As our handsets become more and more a web communication tool, and as UMTS take-up spreads and HSDPA arrives, we will see huge growth in web access via handsets. At this point, downloading material like apps straight to the handset will become established general consumer behavior. The Walkman will help drive interest among new user groups. The youth generation is used to transferring music files from PC to portable music players. We believe this behavior will rub off also in downloading other types of applications and result in a natural curiosity in exploring a device such as the W950. This will require other types of entertainment applications from the developer community than the traditional business and productivity applications. We are encouraging developers to create more multimedia-type of applications. For example; pod-radio, pod-casts, use of interactive media.

Sony Ericsson is a strong believer in the Home-Mobile convergence concept with the ability to connect all of your devices and be able to access the services you’re used to at home from your mobile phone. One first step towards this is the LocationFree TV solution announced in October 2006, enabling P990 smartphone users to enjoy their favorite local TV shows on their phones wherever they are in the world. LocationFree from Sony uses the Internet to redirect content from home TVs to target devices such as the P990, so users can keep up with their “must see” programs. The LocationFree Base Station, available from Sony, coupled with LocationFree Player software supplied on the P990 Memory Stick or by download, enables users to watch live TV, playback recorded programs or watch a DVD film (provided it’s in the DVD player), and even set up future recordings on their VCR, all on their P990. You can choose the best way for your P990 to connect to the Base Station depending on where you are – over the Internet, through a wireless connection if you’re in a Wi-Fi hotspot or through your 3G network.

Future technologies for home-mobile convergence will be IMS (IP based Multimedia Services), a standard driven by Ericsson, and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) very much driven by Sony. Sony Ericsson will have a very strong position to base its future phone, applications and content offering around these technologies thanks to its family ties.