Sony and Ericsson get a divorce

It lasted ten years but now it's over: Sony and Ericsson are breaking up their Sony will keep the mobile operations, paying Ericsson $1.5 billion in cash for its share. The move means Sony will get some of Ericsson's handset patents, which could result in some interesting new products and online content, according to ZDnet.
Sony will now have the means to merge smartphone technology into some of its wider range products, including computers and TVs.
Once the deal closes in January 2012, Ericsson will focus on selling wireless equipment for businesses, taking a step back from consumer goods.
Sony Ericsson initially joined forces to take advantage of Sony's experience with consumer electronics and Ericsson's skills in radio technologies. Now the shift in the mobile market towards smartphones means the synergies for the company in having both a telecoms services portfolio and a handset operation have decreased, Ericsson said in a statement:
"Ten years ago when we formed the joint venture, thereby combining Sony's consumer products knowledge with Ericsson's telecommunication technology expertise, it was a perfect match to drive the development of feature phones. Today we take an equally logical step as Sony acquires our stake in Sony Ericsson and makes it a part of its broad range of consumer devices."

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Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman review

Sony Ericsson hasn’t had much luck when it comes to Android smartphones, and while their handsets tend to look nice on the outside, they rarely make the grade inside. In fact, for the longest time, Sony Ericsson phone owners had to wait for Android 2.2 Froyo to be released, with many of the older models still being stuck on Eclair even until today. I am glad to report that this is not the case with one of their more recent releases, the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman.
Running on Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread right out of the box, you are greeted with a green theme – the packaging is minimal, and there is no styrofoam (yay!) to speak of. The bare basics are there – a charger, a product sheet, a pair of headphones, all crammed into a soy-ink printed box.

Before I begin, here is how I use the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman – I turn on my 3G connection round the clock, check emails via Gmail, surf the net using the native browser for around 10 minutes each day, receive and reply on average two to three SMSes, and talk for around 10 minutes. Having said that, this kind of usage pattern managed to eke out around 16 to 18 hours of battery life each day, so depending on your pattern, your mileage might vary.
Being relatively small sized compared to other more powerful smartphones, the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman comes with a rather diminutive 3.2” screen size that maxes out at 480 x 320 resolution – not the most impressive, but at least it is functional. I am quite surprised that there is no light sensor, so you will need to manually adjust your device’s screen brightness depending on the situation. There is a dedicated Walkman button on the opposite end of the power button, giving you quick access to the handset’s Walkman functions with but a single press of the button. Being a Walkman-centric phone, you can be sure that Sony Ericsson lives up to their reputation as the Walkman app works well enough for you to organize your collection of digital music. I would recommend getting a large capacity microSD memory card – the phone’s 320MB of internal memory is not going to be enough from the start, so it makes sense to stash all your favorite music on an external card.
The camera works decently in brightly lighted conditions as with what other decent camera phones would do, and you got to give it to Sony Ericsson for including an external shutter button that makes it infinitely easier to shoot self-portraits if you want a 5-megapixel shot – otherwise, there is always the front-facing VGA camera to fall back on.
Call quality proved to be decent at all times, although there is the issue of dropped calls from time to time. That is most probably the carrier’s fault, so it really depends on who you’re subscribing to, and the area where you live as it is different for everyone.
In conclusion, this is a decent enough handset if you are not looking for something extravagant. Functional, cheap, and hardy-looking. Does it fit your list of preferences? I would say that if you are so used to other user interfaces such as HTC Sense or Samsung TouchWiz, then you should give this a miss as going back to a stock Android user interface is going to leave you frustrated from the get go.

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