And launches three new phones
Sony Ericsson and Google today announced that they have integrated Google’s Blogger and Web Search features on Sony Ericsson mobile phones.
Although Motorola has announced a partnership to embed Google on some of its handsets, and Vodafone and Google are co-operating to incorporate the search facility into the Vodafone live! portal, this is the first agreement to include Google’s blog application. The first Sony Ericsson products to offer the new service are the recently announced K610 UMTS phone and new flagship imaging handsets, the K800 and K790, announced today and available in Q2 2006.
Operators like the idea of mobile blogging because as well as making them look down with the mutlimedia kids, it could generate good data uploading and downloading. They envisage users taking pictures from their phone and uploading them onto their blogs, and then sharing them with other users. In other words, it’s a driver for MMS.
Perhaps more significantly, Google will become the standard search engine for all new Sony Ericsson Internet-capable phones. It has been tightly integrated into the phone’s web experience with multiple access points. For instance, users can directly activate a Google Web Search option from whichever page they are viewing without the need to launch a new web page to complete a search.
Google is making a clear play for the mobile market. With Sony Ericsson and Motorola as partners, key targets to look for now will be Nokia and Samsung. Nokia may be less keen to share screentime with Google, but if operators begin to see increased internet browsing due to user familiarity and comfort with the Google name, they may well be forced to follow, on at least some handset ranges.
The Google-Sony Ericsson announcement coincided with the launch of three new camera phones from the handset maker.
The phones are the K510 with 1.3 Megapixel camera, the Z530 Clamshell and the K310.
“These phones are designed for capturing those special moments and best of all sharing them with friends and family,” says Jan Wäreby, Corporate Executive Vice President, Head of Sales and Marketing of Sony Ericsson. “Each one delivers great photography and viewing quality, plus you have a variety of choices about how you send your pictures on – email, MMS or infrared – so you really can share anywhere.”