Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 10 March 2008 16:21
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Sony Ericsson has released the W890i Walkman phone, calling it ‘the
ultimate’ mobile music device – but I know of a better one, and I’m not
talking about the iPhone!
Marketing and public relations people have a job to do, but sometimes they need to be careful not to distort reality – although in some ways, that’s their job, and wishing otherwise is probably futile.
When Sony Ericsson’s latest press release came through, unveiling the SE W890i Walkman phone, it was tagged as ‘The Ultimate Mobile Music Device’.
To start with, Sony Ericsson really need to come up with a better naming scheme than giving its phones model numbers, although precisely what the new naming scheme would be isn’t immediately apparent, and anyway, I’m not in marketing, but journalism.
However, “W890i” is pretty inelegant sounding and nowhere near as snappy as ‘Walkman’ itself, or iPhone and iPod, and it’s potentially easily confused with the higher spec, and as yet unavailable SE W980i Walkman phone, which we
previously wrote about when it was unveiled at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.
Now, the SE W980i, as you’ll see from the article linked above, is a much better phone than the SE W890i, with a big difference between the two being that the W890i is available in stores now, while the W980i won’t land in stores until at least Q3 of 2008, although the W980i is unlikely to be as thin as the W890i, while the W980i has even more features (and 8GB of internal storage) and will likely therefore cost more, too.
With that out of the way, what’s new about the W890i, and why is it Sony Ericsson’s ‘ultimate mobile music device’ – of the moment?
Billed as having a slim, stylish design that’s as thin as a CD case, 2GB of music storage capacity, a 3.5G HSDPA chipset, video calling capabilities, a 3.2 megapixel camera and other features which we look at on page 2, the W890i Walkman phone is a bit like a 2nd-gen iPod nano with 3.5G phone and camera on a massive dose of steroids – and with what look like much better buttons than the hit model it replaces, the W880i, which had tiny keypad buttons that some didn’t like.
Josh Oxspring, Marketing Manager of Oceania at Sony Ericsson explains who the W890i is aimed that: “With this latest phone, we address the needs of young, fashion-conscious music lovers who demand the latest Walkman features and fast downloads. This Walkman phone combines Sony Ericsson’s undeniable expertise in mobile communications and mobile music to stunning effect” – and given the W890i’s dimensions and feature spec, it is likely to be popular.
So, what else are the other new features of the SE W890i? Please read onto page 2.
