Sony Ericsson has suffered a major setback with news that retailers Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U have halted sales of the handset it had hoped would revive its flagging fortunes because of a software glitch.
Sony Ericsson's Satio phone, formerly codenamed the Idou, was launched last month backed by a multi-million pound advertising campaign featuring hundreds of people bouncing through Barcelona on brightly coloured spacehoppers, designed to highlights its mammoth 12.1 megapixel camera.
Sony Ericsson - which has been losing market share to the likes of Samsung - HTC and Apple, had hoped that the phone would be a winner with consumers. But retailers have reported a high number of customers returning their phone, complaining that it has software problems. Both Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U have suspended sales of the device.
The phone apparently crashes when switching between applications while some customers have complained that it can suddenly lose all of its ringtones. Customers have complained that they have to remove the battery to get the phone to switch back on. Sony Ericsson says it is working on a solution to the problem which it hopes to make available on its website as soon as it is ready. It remains to be seen whether any of the mobile networks will offer the patch as an 'over the air' upgrade.
The issue appears to be linked with the way that SonyEricsson has placed its own software 'skin' over the handset's basic operating system. Phones sold directly by Orange and Vodafone - both of whom have placed their own 'skins' on the device - do not seem to have been affected.
Sony Ericsson reported a widened quarterly loss of €164m (£148m) in October and took in €455m of external funding from its joint venture investors, Sony and Ericsson to bolster its balance sheet.
