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Sony Ericsson is taking more hits than Rory’s face in front of Flora’s fist, with the news that the Sony Ericsson Aino has problems with its touchscreen.
Earlier this week, the Aino’s big brother, the Sony Ericsson Satio, was pulled from the shelves at Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U because of problems with its software. Now the phone maker is suffering again, after admitting the Aino has a “software issue… using the touchscreen interface in particular”.
Reports of the slider’s death are greatly exaggerated, however. Engadget and others have written that Carphone Warehouse has also yanked the Aino from shelves, but as of today the phone is still on sale throughout the UK, including on the Carphone Warehouse Web site. A Carphone spokesperson told us it has no plans to pull the Aino.
In our review of the Aino, we didn’t think the touchscreen, which you can only use when the phone is closed, made any sense. So now the Aino is out in the wild, perhaps this is a case of evolution getting rid of useless appendages. Either way, it’s clear that neither of Sony Ericsson’s flagship media phones are coming out on top in the battle for survival of the fittest.
It’s not unusual for a new phone to be updated with new firmware after being launched, and this is becoming more common as the struggle between operators to release the latest and greatest phone intensifies. But Sony Ericsson doesn’t need the grief, following a loss of €199m in the third
quarter of 2009.
Sony Ericsson is sweeping out the cobwebs with a new batch of smart phones based on the Android operating system, starting early next year with the Xperia X10. Based on the struggles of the Satio and Aino, it can’t come too soon.
