Smartphone maker Sony Ericsson this morning posted a pre-tax loss of 247 million euros ($318 million) in the fourth quarter of 2011, after reporting a profit of 31 million euros in Q3 2011. The company, a 50:50 joint-venture between Sony and Ericsson, blames “intense competition”, “price erosion” and effects from the flooding in Thailand as some of the main drivers for the drop.
Sales for the quarter were approximately 1.3 billion euros, down 16 percent year-on-year. → Read More
Ericsson, which provides technology and services to telecom operators around the globe, is forecasting a tenfold increase in mobile data traffic over the next five years, mainly driven by video.
By 2016, Ericsson also predicts mobile broadband subscriptions to exceed 5 billion in its latest Traffic and Market Data report (PDF). The company earlier predicted that number to surpass 1 billion in 2011, but now forecasts 900 million subscribers by year’s end.
According to the report, mobile data traffic will double this year, mainly due to surging sales of smartphones, tablets and other portable devices. Total smartphone traffic is expected to triple during 2011. → Read More
Just landed in our inbox: a link to this excellent documentary on connectivity, sponsored by Ericsson and entitled ‘On The Brink’.
Picked up earlier by GigaOm, the 21-minute documentary features folks like David Weinberger, Caterina Fake, Ola Ahlvarsson, SoundCloud co-founder Erik Wahlforss and Wired’s David Rowan, among others. → Read More
Sony Corp. has just announced that it will pay $1.47 billion for Ericsson’s 50% stake in a joint mobile handset venture. → Read More
As it stands, Sony Ericsson is the 6th largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, but Sony may be looking into going it alone. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Sony is close to finalizing a buyout of Ericsson’s stake in their joint venture.
According to the usual unnamed sources, current talks are tenuous at best. That doesn’t seem to have dampened Sony CEO Howard Stringer’s mood: he reportedly wants the deal finalized as soon as possible. → Read More
ST-Ericsson, a joint venture of STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, this morning announced it will launch a cost savings plan to achieve about $120 million of annualized savings by the end of 2012. The company, which develops a range of mobile platforms and wireless semiconductor solutions, said the plan includes a workforce review that may affect up to 500 employees.
ST-Ericsson, which says more than 4 billion phones have been built using its products and technologies to date, is launching the cost-cutting plan due to “recent changes in the business environment and reduced demand for legacy products at certain customers”. → Read More
Remember Ericsson? Yeah, they used to make mobile phones on their own. Then they realised they couldn’t compete against Nokia, Motorola and the rest, and spun out their mobile division to hook up with Sony, who also realised that they were getting squeezed. Sony Ericcson mobile has trundled along for a few years and are even coming out with handheld mashups like the Xperia Play. But the mothership of Ericsson itself has largely turned into a telecoms and services company. Today, however they are doing something unusually disruptive.
Ericsson Money is launching across seven European countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Sweden) and allows anyone to send and receive money via mobile. Eventually there will be a commission fee for sending money but for a limited time it’s free. → Read More
Ericsson, which provides tech and services to telecom operators around the globe, estimates that the number of mobile broadband subscriptions has grown to a whopping 500 million during the course of 2010, and that this number will double before the end of this year.
Ericsson forecasts that the majority of subscriptions, roughly 400 million in total, is expected to be concentrated in the Asia Pacific region, followed by North America and Western Europe with more than 200 million subscriptions each. → Read More
Sweden-based Ericsson has agreed to acquire Spanish telecommunications vendor Optimi, which provides networks optimization and management solutions to a diverse set of clients in the telecom space.
For Ericsson, the acquisition is a way to broaden the customer base for its multi-vendor network management and optimization business. → Read More
Ericsson, which provides technology and services to telecom operators around the globe, estimates we’ve hit another milestone in the Internet becoming increasingly mobile. The company claims, based on estimates based on industry information, that the 5 billionth mobile subscription was accounted for on Thursday, July 8.
The 5 billion mark was hit largely thanks to a surge in mobile subscriptions in emerging markets like China and India, the company says. In the year 2000, about 720 million people had mobile subscriptions, less than the amount of users China alone has today, still according to Ericsson. → Read More
Are you as excited as I am about LTE and the blazing fast data speeds it promises? Sure you are. And while you’re undoubtedly holding your breath waiting for 4G service and handsets, AT&T is moving forward with field trials after announcing that Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson will be providing its equipment. What’s in store for AT&T in the near future? → Read More
ST-Ericsson, a 50/50 joint venture by STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, this morning announced its latest HSDPA platform built on the Linux OS. Dubbed U6715, the platform aims to aid handset manufacturers produce smartphones powered by Android – or other Linux-based operating systems – with a wholesale price of less than €100 ($138).
ST-Ericsson says it anticipates manufacturers to launch the first commercial products based on its U6715 chip platform in the first half of 2010. → Read More
ST-Ericsson, a 50/50 joint venture by STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, this morning announced its latest HSDPA platform built on the Linux OS. Dubbed U6715, the platform aims to aid handset manufacturers produce smartphones powered by Android – or other Linux-based operating systems – with a wholesale price of less than €100 ($138).
ST-Ericsson says it anticipates manufacturers to launch the first commercial products based on its U6715 chip platform in the first half of 2010. → Read More
Here’s an interesting fact, if you really stretch the definition of the word “interesting.” Team CrunchGear often used the Novatel MiFi during CES to bring you all that great content. The concept is simple: it takes a 3G signal and then outputs that signal via Wi-Fi. You then connect to the Wi-Fi network. Instant broadband, cell signal depending, for everyone. The same concept applies to the MBRN3300, a router that’s the product of a Netgear-Ericsson partnership. → Read More
For all of you waiting for mobile data networks to catch up to broadband speeds on cable and DSL, the first 4G/LTE network has arrived . . . in Sweden (and Norway too). The Scandinavians get everything first when it comes to mobile, except the iPhone. TeliaSonera launched the first two cities of its 4G network, which promises wireless download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (yeah, right) using equipment from Ericsson and Huawei.
So if you live in Oslo or Stockholm, you get to try it out. Everyone else is out of luck. TeliaSonera says it will roll out the 4G service to 25 cities in Sweden and Norway in 2010. But you know how these things go. The full rollout may take longer because they are still trying to follow the instructions on how to put it together. They are pretty sure they are missing some bolts. → Read More
LG and Intel announced that they are partnering to produce MIDs (mobile internet devices) based on Intel’s Moorestown hardware platform and Moblin OS. LG hopes to release internet devices with low power consumption. They are also tapping Ericsson to provide 3G capabilities for the devices. → Read More
The Japanese carrier KDDI has just announced the Sony Ericsson Walkman Xmini phone to be realeased in Japan at the end of December. It measures 44 x 75 x 18mm (when closed) and features a 1.8-inch LCD display with 4GB of built-in memory. The Xmini can hold up to 2,300 songs from EZ “Chaku Uta Full”, KDDI’s mobile music download service. When it’s closed, it looks like a regular Walkman music player and music controls appear under the display screen. When you slide it open, an alphanumeric keypad is revealed to give you normal cell phone capabilities. There is no information yet on whether the phone will be available in other countries. → Read More
Ericsson has big plans for cell phones – big plans. Ultimately by the 2012, the company sees 100+ Mbps connection with 12-20MP cameras as you can see by the chart above. Plus, your lowly phone will be able to record HD video and sport a 1GHz CPU. So in less than four years all this is suppose to happen, Ericsson? M’kay. The megapixal camera is within reason, and even the HD video part doesn’t seem that wacky within four years, but while Euro snobs and Japanese tech geeks might see the fast data speeds, chances are we here in the States will not see those quick speeds before flying cars. → Read More
Ericsson has big plans for cell phones – big plans. Ultimately by the 2012, the company sees 100+ Mbps connection with 12-20MP cameras as you can see by the chart above. Plus, your lowly phone will be able to record HD video and sport a 1GHz CPU. So in less than four years all this is suppose to happen, Ericsson? M’kay. The megapixal camera is within reason, and even the HD video part doesn’t seem that wacky within four years, but while Euro snobs and Japanese tech geeks might see the fast data speeds, chances are we here in the States will not see those quick speeds before flying cars. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
