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Back in August, we reported Safran will sell Sagem Mobiles to a VC firm. Now we have more information to add to that. As a result of the acquisition, brand name Sagem will disappear from handsets at the end the year.

Sofinnova, the new owner of the company, obviously thinks there’s little value being associated with Sagem brand as they will continue to act as an OEM and make mobile phones for other handset makers and operators. For instance, some of the existing Sony Ericsson low-end phones were made by Sagem.

In addition to focusing on “pure production,” Sofinova will also push its newly acquired division towards developing “new products and innovations” for the mobile industry. We’re not sure what that means at this stage, but we’re certainly looking forward to the “innovation” part.

As for the already announced Sagem handsets, they will “partly come to market.” Guess, we’ll have to wait and see which “part” they’re talking about…

[Via: Engadget Mobile, GSM HelpDesk]

Is it just me, or are more and more luxury car manufacturers releasing their own mobile devices? Seems to be a little mini-trend these days. If you own the car, might as well pick up the phone too, right? If I owned a Lamborghini Murciélago I’d probably pick up the Lamborghini ZX 1… I think. The latest to follow this trend is a new device from Porsche Design and Sagem. The Sagem/Porsche P9522. Catchy name.

You’ll notice the standard Porsche font featured on the device, as well as Porsche styling. It is however lacking 3G. That’s a bit disappointing. More specs include:

• 2.8? touchscreen with reinforced mineral glass (wow, mineral glass!?)
• 5 megapixel camera
• built-in GPS receiver
• WiFi connectivity
• built-in fingerprint reader (cool)

Pricing is expected to start around 600 Euros. Look for it to hit shops in France next month.

[Via: UnwiredReview]

If Porsche Design’s P9521 tickles your fancy (and your wallet), you might be interested in the new Limited Edition Porsche Design P’9521 clad in stylish White - that is, if the $2,063 price-tag doesn’t make your wallet run and hide. The sleek industrial design that Porsche Design is known for really makes for an elegant and understated aluminum handset that features a scratch-resistant mineral glass display, fingerprint scanner and 3.2 megapixel camera.

The Porsche Design P’9521 isn’t known for being slim or curvy, but the blocky handset definitely has that high-end feel that a 4-figure price-tag should offer, and the White Porsche Design P’9521 is no exception.

Head on over to eprice for more pics of the Limited Edition White Porsche Design P’9521.

[Via: Slashphone]

Asda has announced Britain’s lowest priced PAYG (Pay As You Go) mobile phones deal, selling handsets for £5! Apparently it’s a “no strings” deal so you can buy just the device, without needing to buy an credit (although clearly you’d need some to make calls…..). Over 50,000 of the handset will be available at stores across the UK while stocks last, and there are a choice of four:

• Sagem My212x
• Sagem My220x
• Sagem My150x
• Nokia 1112

(The PAYG tariffs come from Virgin, T-Mobile and Orange)

News, as if any were needed, that the commoditisation of mobile devices has reached astronomic levels…

[Via: Scenta.co.uk]

France-based Sagem keeps trying to find its niche in the mobile phone marketplace. So far their affordable fashion phones brought them mixed success, but they’re certainly trying hard to reach niche markets. Their latest My411C Lulu Castagnette model seems designed for kids and young women — the original Lulu Castagnette’s market.

In terms of features, the device honestly sucks. A VGA camera, MP3 player, Bluetooth and WAP 2.0 browser sound so 2006ish. The design is cool, though, and the phone also packs Lulu Castagnette styled content such as ringtones and screensavers. If priced correctly — i.e. cheap — I guess people could buy this phone for their elementary school kid. Other than that, I can hardly envision anyone else using it.

[Via: JampBLOG]

Following from my post yesterday about the multiple Mobile TV standards, today I thought we might take a short tour de force of Mobile TV handsets - with specific reference to the DVB-H standard….

Read the full article

Who says luxurious means expensive? Well I do, but Sagem just proved me wrong. Actually, I would put their latest my220x phone in some entry-level luxurious category as it does look expensive, yet it’s not.

The way they’ve managed to pull this out that was to save on features and add just a slight of golden touch. The end result is the stylish, compact, candybar-shaped device which provides just the basic phone features like calling and texting.

Seems like a viable strategy if you ask me. Especially for the pre-computers generation, who may not ask much from their handsets…

[Via: MobileWhack]

In case you’re looking for an affordable stylish music-enabled 3G phone, the new Sagem my850c could be for you. Apart from the built-in 3G radio and music player, this clamshell also packs a megapixel camera, two screen (internal QVGA and external 96×64 pixels), dedicated music controls, stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) and of course the microSD memory card slot. And in case you’re wondering about its size, the my850c measures 96×49×16 mm and weighs 95 grams. Most probably we’ll see it hitting the Vodafone and some French carriers in the near future…

[Via: Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]

The Inquirer is reporting that Sony Ericsson will be integrating the Sony Connect service into their devices on November 6th. Whether or not this is a response to Ovi is questionable, but do we really need another player in the “we hope kids stop pirating music” game? Sure the future is services, but why are people trying to take old business models and attach an online interface to it in the hopes that money will be made? The revenue is in hardware and the inq points out that SE has recently signed a contract with Sagem to make sub 75 euro handsets for the upcoming 2.5 billion people in the world wanting handsets. I wish them luck as they are the one company that I think can attack Nokia if they just got their act together.

We like drooling over phones that seem to get more and more expensive every year, but that isn’t where the money is in our industry. Cheap phones that are sold by the millions with low margins are where the action is. Nokia for example, their ASP (average selling price) for Q1 2007 was 89 Euros, down from 103 Euros only 12 months prior. Whether analysts out there care or not, the truth of the situation is phones are turning into commodities. The race to create a device that will cost under $20 to the end consumer yet still yield a profit is on, who will win?

I can’t tell you, but Sony sure wants a piece of that pie as they’ve announced today in Dubai. Expect devices to be releasd begining 1Q 2008 and manufactured by the French company Sagem.

[Via: Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]