Sony Ericsson Pulls Cameraphone Satio from Sale

Sony Ericsson has suspended sales of its new 12Mp cameraphone, Satio, after only a few weeks of UK availability.

Photo: Sony Ericsson Pulls Cameraphone Satio from Sale

The company told Register Hardware today that “a small number of consumers have experienced software issues” with the phone over here. It isn't known if overseas buyers are experiencing the same problems.

SE refused to specify exactly what prompted it to pull the Satio from shop shelves. It would only say that the software woes manifest themselves when owners use certain unnamed applications.

However, online forums have provided Satio owners with space to complain about the phone. “Sudden freezing”, battery problems, “ringtone faults” and software crashes have all been highlighted by a number of the handset users, Reg Hardware reports.

TIt was also reported, sales are stopped until Sony Ericsson offers a solution to the many customers who have complained to the two stores about the problems, which include random powering-down and slowness. Unfortunately the problem can't be fixed by issuing a firmware upgrade to the handsets, so the faulty handsets must be recalled, resulting in angry customers and a lot of paperwork for Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U.

Sony Ericsson's Senior Marketing Manager, Richard Dorman, told The Times that "Sales of the product have been very strong and we expect them to remain strong once the problem has been fixed," however there's a chance that being withdrawn from two key shops before Christmas might damage Sony Ericsson's sales, made worse by the over-enthusiastic advertising of the Satio, which shows several cheerful people bouncing about on spacehoppers taking photos of each other on the Satio, T3 reports.

News agencies also report, the Satio II will come with a 8-megapixel camera, the same as that found on the W995, and will be powered by the Symbian 5th Edition S60 operating system. Sony Ericsson will also throw in its own customised user interface and as mobile-review.com found out, the phone can produce 720p videos.

Other features that have been leaked include the fact that it will be powered by a Cortex A8 processor coupled with a PowerVR graphics unit.

The same hardware ensemble can also be found in the iPhone 3GS as well the Nokia N97. The only detail missing is the processor speed.

It will have 256MB RAM, 2GB internal storage and a 2GB microSD card plus a 3.5mm headphone socket therefore confirming SE's decision to abandon any proprietary technology, ITProPortal reports.