OXFORD, United Kingdom—While the newly formed Sony Ericsson expects to sell its first third-generation (3G) handset in Europe later this year, Jan Wareby, its executive vice president, has cautioned potential users to expect interoperability issues with products from these early shipments.
Despite this looming problem, Wareby claimed that once volume shipments of 3G phones start in the second or third quarters of next year, any interoperability issues should be resolved. Adding to this, the company stated it is quietly confident that global sales of cell phones will top 400 million this year—a marginal increase on last year’s figure, boosted by roaming for multimedia messaging service (MMS) services that will be launched later this year in Europe and the United States.
Helping to substantiate this positive viewpoint, U.K.-based market research firm Abel & Baker claimed that new survey findings indicate video telephony and MMS will be the driving forces behind 3G uptake, not wireless Internet access or m-commerce. The firm maintained that an emphasis on self-generated content, reasonable prices, the consumer market and reliable connections to sufficient bandwidth will be key factors for successful launches of 3G services.
