Sony

Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony is coming close to closing a deal with Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson to buy out their 50% stake of the Sony Ericsson brand. Sony Ericsson is currently the sixth largest mobile phone maker in the world, and Sony hopes to fully add them to their arsenal. As you can see in the graph after the break, Sony Ericsson’s market share has been declining rapidly in recent years.

While the talks could fall apart at any time, Sony Ericsson’s stake is estimated between $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion by analysts. Sony reportedly has high ambitions to regain the mobile phone market from primarily Apple and Google. For comparisons sake, Google acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, but of course the Sony situation is a little different.

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Engadget has posted Sony showing off an updated Google TV set-top box running Honeycomb. We’ve been expecting Honeycomb to hit the platform all summer after seeing it leak, but this demo shows a much more stable version ready for release. As you can see above, Android apps are running on a Google TV.

Last month, Google released the SDK for developers to begin optimizing apps for bigger television screens. Apps have seem to been Google TV’s number one requested feature, which would give the platform a lot more functionality. We’re hopping this hits as soon as possible! Read more at Engadget

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Reuters is reporting that during the Edinburgh television festival, Eric Schmidt said Google is bringing on more partners to help expand their Google TV platform. Schmidt explained the company’s commitment to the platform, and that bring on more manufacturers would solve problems.

Schmidt sourced the scant availability of a set-top box version to be the reason why Google TV isn’t selling well. He said at the moment, Google TV is designed into televisions, which consumers replace around every 5 years. What about the Logitech Revue, Mr. Schmidt?

Along with new partners, Schmidt said Friday that Google TV would make its way to Europe in the next six months. It looks like Schmidt, and company, are committed to improving Google TV for the long haul.

It’s no secret patent-related legal disputes have become the subject of most media coverage lately…Whether it’s Apple halting sales of Samsung’s tablets, HTC going after Apple, or Google snatching up Motorola to beef up their patent portfolio, it’s clear the company with the most patents will have an advantage over others in the legal proceedings that we’re bound to continue encountering down the road. This is why we’re intrigued by the graphic above (via GigaOM) from mobile analyst Chetan Sharma charting the number of issued patents (in the US and Europe) between 1993 and 2011.

While these estimates of mobile communications related patents don’t take the quality of patents into account (which is obviously a huge factor in determining their long-term value), you can see from the breakdown below that Nokia and Samsung top the list, with the other expected players including IBM, Microsoft, Sony, Motorola, and Intel following.

Noticeably far down the list is Apple, the one company who seems to have had more success than others fighting patent-related issues recently. Again, these numbers in no way represent the quality of patents and the ability for companies to protect their IPs in the courtroom… which is also a good indication that perhaps we should be looking more closely at the quality of patents rather than the sheer number.

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We’ve been playing with Sony’s Xperia PLAY, from Verizon for the better part of a month now. The PLAY is available on Verizon for $99 (and free on Amazon), after seeing a price slashed from $199 just a few weeks ago.

The PLAY is running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) with a pretty thick overlay, a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 4-inch multi-touch display, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, VGA front-facing camera, and preloaded PLAY software.  Also included are controls to play games. Is this the gaming phone the world needs? Read on after the break for our full review.

As promised in their latest horrific earnings report, Logitech has lowered the Revue GoogleTV box to just $99.  That’s $200 less than it was yesterday, though sales had it near $150 in the past.  Best Buy has dropped the price as well.  Other retailers have yet to drop their prices, though that is expected to change soon.

Sony is also deeply discounting their GoogleTVs as well, though they haven’t made a formal announcement on the matter.

Google is expected to roll out a Honeycomb update for the Logitech/Sony GoogleTV by the end of summer which will give the device the ability to run apps on the big screen, a simplified interface as well as numerous other optimizations and improvements.  Via 9to5toys.com

Press release follows:
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AT&T announced at a media event today that Sony’s Xperia Play will be available on their network. AT&T didn’t give an exact date or pricing, but said that the Play will land on its shelves by the end of the year. AT&T’s Xperia Play will be running Android 2.3, or Gingerbread, making it the second 2.3 phone on AT&T’s network alongside the Status (OK, that’s sad). Also, AT&T’s Xperia Play will bring support for 21Mbps HSPA+ 3G and a new “Stealth Blue” color option. No word if AT&T will change up pre-loaded games from the Verizon/international versions.

Image via Engadget
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Sony’s inaugural Android tablet, the S1, was caught in the wild ten days ago and today Sony gets semi-official with a possible pre-order date for the UK set to Thursday, September 1, This is my next has learned.

We’ve just seen documents indicating that Sony Centre stores in the UK will be taking S1 pre-orders starting September 1st. That’s just a little later than the late-August pre-order date we’d previously heard, but nothing too major – and Sony will still be among the first to ship a themed and skinned Honeycomb tablet, which we suppose is something of an accomplishment.

No pricing information was released at press time. The Japanese consumer electronics giant will apparently work closely with the preferred retailers to educate them about the benefits of the S1. The September 1 launch is just a month and half away and we are expecting the S1 to hit the US shores shortly thereafter.

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From 9to5toys.com:

Logitech today offers a refurb Logitech Revue for $149.99.  That’s half of retail and the lowest price yet offered.  The Revue is the standalone Google TV unit with full sized keyboard and trackpad.  It features an Intel processor, 1080P video with browser that can play Flash video, Pandora, Twitter and more.

As we reported earlier this week, you can also pick up a Sony 24-inch LCD GoogleTV for just $299 as well.

Both of these machines will be upgradable to the next GoogleTV OS based un Honeycomb in the upcoming months.
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From 9to5toys.com:

Sony Style cuts $200 off its 24-inch Google TV.  The new $399 price was Sony’s original price for a GoogleTV BluRay Player (Which is now free with an HDTV purchase).

Sony Style offers its Sony 24″ 1080p LED-Backlit Widescreen LCD HD Television with Google TV, model no. NSX-24GT1, for $400 with free shipping. That’s $49 under our April mention and the lowest total price we could find by $97. Sales tax is added where applicable. Features include a 1920×1080 (1080p) native resolution, LED backlight, 2,500:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 8GB of built-in storage, wireless keypad remote control, 802.11n wireless, Gigabit Ethernet, USB connectivity, one HDMI input, and VGA, component, and other video inputs. It also features support for the Android-based Google TV service (which allows you to watch Internet content on your HDTV) as well as applications for Netflix, Twitter, Pandora, CNBC, NBA TV, and more.

32 and 40-inch models also got cut $200 while the 46″ model got a healthy $400 price cut.

Does this mean new models with a new Honeycomb-based OS are on the way?  Likely.

Sony is joining the streaming music craze with today’s release of Music Unlimited, a brand new Android app that lets you stream from Sony’s catalog of 7+ million songs, with monthly fees starting at just four bucks for the Basic streaming plan (a pricier Premium plan is also available). From release notes:

With the Basic plan, you can access personalized channels that adapt to your music tastes and your mood and enjoy the songs in your personal library that have been previously synched from your PC. The Premium plan offers all the features of the Basic Plan, plus full access to our entire catalogue and premium streaming channels.

The Music Unlimited service is also available via the PlayStation3, Internet-connected Sony television sets and Blu-ray players. What’s best, they let you sign up for the Premium plan with a free of charge 30-day trial period. So ho ahead, grab the free download from Android Market now. Bear in mind that the app is currently available only in the United States, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Also – good luck with that PlayStation Network streaming!

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