Sony Ericsson vs Playstation
Mobile-review have posted an article about Sony Ericsson and gaming. Here are their final words.
When it comes to settling down on the mobile gaming market, Sony Ericsson doesn't have much of a choice. The easiest and the most obvious step for them would be to get some game developer under their wing, instead of development of complex online gaming systems. Basically, this step is very essential to reduce the price of games development and embed more of them into Sony Ericsson barnded mobile phones. Take the Sony Ericsson F305i, for example - it comes included with eleven games and this is only the beginning, expect to see more of this approach from Sony Ericsson down the road.
As far as Playnow Arena is concerned, the company will be focusing not on free extra games, but rather a variety of bonuses, such as new levels to already existing games that will be available for download. The bottom line is that the amount of free content will be reduced to the minimum, although freeware apps aren't going anywhere (but the truth is, you can upload them onto any phone even today).
Interestingly, the tally for a phone coming preinstalled with a wider array of games will be somewhat heftier, and it will set these phones behind the competition in terms of price. Actually, this is an important factor, so question marks remain over how successful the F-series can be against the backdrop of its lower-priced rivals. Nokia, on the other hand, utilizes a different kind of approach, banking on fashion-conscious phones that get more content, including games and other applications.
The concept of the specialist gaming handset isn't as promising, as it sounds - it may resonate within the community and have reasonably good sales along with great PR, but from an economical standpoint, this device won't be well-justified.
So, all things considered, it turns out that Sony Ericsson are running with the approach back from 2004, when they were beefing up the gaming department in their mid-range handsets. But with this strategy they need to sacrifice some other feats and abilities as a tradeoff so as not to hurt the sales of music- and imaging-minded solutions. This brings us to an interesting mix of functions, when the music player version found in gaming-oriented phones will always be one notch behind the Walkman line-up, and the camera won't be stellar either. In my opinion, this is a wrong way to approach the problem, as people don't need just gaming devices that can get the job done one way or another - the market is bent on truly convergent handsets these days. Games cannot be the centerpiece of mobile phones, as can only act as a welcome addition and an extra selling point. But the center stage will always be occupied by design, price tag, music, imaging, connectivity options and so on (disregarding platforms and some other components). At the end of the day, Sony Ericsson ends up hostage to their Walkman series (specifically, the revenue flow it generates) and the CyberShot line-up that they have yet to build.
For a major leap forward Sony Ericsson will have to forgo their notions carried over from 2004 and think up a small revolution. Furthermore, the way to do this has been around for quite a while, so the only thing they need to do is pick it up. However, they don't seem to realize this over at Sony Ericsson; although it would seem that Sony can afford sharing these technologies with its subsidiary. So, it appears that both 2008 and 2009 will be fruitless for this phone maker, yet again.
When it comes to settling down on the mobile gaming market, Sony Ericsson doesn't have much of a choice. The easiest and the most obvious step for them would be to get some game developer under their wing, instead of development of complex online gaming systems. Basically, this step is very essential to reduce the price of games development and embed more of them into Sony Ericsson barnded mobile phones. Take the Sony Ericsson F305i, for example - it comes included with eleven games and this is only the beginning, expect to see more of this approach from Sony Ericsson down the road.
As far as Playnow Arena is concerned, the company will be focusing not on free extra games, but rather a variety of bonuses, such as new levels to already existing games that will be available for download. The bottom line is that the amount of free content will be reduced to the minimum, although freeware apps aren't going anywhere (but the truth is, you can upload them onto any phone even today).
Interestingly, the tally for a phone coming preinstalled with a wider array of games will be somewhat heftier, and it will set these phones behind the competition in terms of price. Actually, this is an important factor, so question marks remain over how successful the F-series can be against the backdrop of its lower-priced rivals. Nokia, on the other hand, utilizes a different kind of approach, banking on fashion-conscious phones that get more content, including games and other applications.
The concept of the specialist gaming handset isn't as promising, as it sounds - it may resonate within the community and have reasonably good sales along with great PR, but from an economical standpoint, this device won't be well-justified.
So, all things considered, it turns out that Sony Ericsson are running with the approach back from 2004, when they were beefing up the gaming department in their mid-range handsets. But with this strategy they need to sacrifice some other feats and abilities as a tradeoff so as not to hurt the sales of music- and imaging-minded solutions. This brings us to an interesting mix of functions, when the music player version found in gaming-oriented phones will always be one notch behind the Walkman line-up, and the camera won't be stellar either. In my opinion, this is a wrong way to approach the problem, as people don't need just gaming devices that can get the job done one way or another - the market is bent on truly convergent handsets these days. Games cannot be the centerpiece of mobile phones, as can only act as a welcome addition and an extra selling point. But the center stage will always be occupied by design, price tag, music, imaging, connectivity options and so on (disregarding platforms and some other components). At the end of the day, Sony Ericsson ends up hostage to their Walkman series (specifically, the revenue flow it generates) and the CyberShot line-up that they have yet to build.
For a major leap forward Sony Ericsson will have to forgo their notions carried over from 2004 and think up a small revolution. Furthermore, the way to do this has been around for quite a while, so the only thing they need to do is pick it up. However, they don't seem to realize this over at Sony Ericsson; although it would seem that Sony can afford sharing these technologies with its subsidiary. So, it appears that both 2008 and 2009 will be fruitless for this phone maker, yet again.
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