Open Letter from Sony Ericsson Smartphone users to Sony Ericsson CEO Mr. Hideki Komiyama
Mr. Komiyama,
We would like to congratulate you on your appointment as CEO of Sony Ericsson, and wish you a long and profitable term.
Encouraged by your statement “I look forward to bringing to Sony Ericsson my experience in consumer marketing with a deep understanding of customer relationships”, as loyal and often longtime users of Sony Ericsson smartphones we would like to draw your attention to an issue which has been straining this relationship.
There is dire need for Sony Ericsson to further both good customer relations and decent product support for its smartphone client base.
We are the customers who have paid a premium price to become unwitting beta testers for your flagship product and would appreciate your attention to the following.The poor reception and high return rate of the P990i is attributable to at least three factors – initial firmware of poor quality, lack of proper beta testing before product release and insufficient RAM.
The fact that Sony Ericsson released the P1i with more RAM to address at least the third issue shows that the company is fully aware of these problems, however no efforts were made to reply meaningfully to the very genuine and valid complaints of unsatisfied smartphone owners.
Our use of the Sony Ericsson developers support thread as our only channel of communication to a company that sells communication devices speaks volumes.
The Sony Ericsson call centres are obviously not equipped to deal with anything other than the most basic of customer queries. Both telephonic and email queries related to firmware and hardware problems with these devices were virtually always answered with bland, generic and meaningless replies.
Users of highly sophisticated smartphones tend to have both a better understanding of their devices than the average mobile customer and to use the devices to their full potential.
As technology enthusiasts and willing early adopters of new devices, we fully understand that products may be shipped out in a less than perfect state.
It is surely not unreasonable to expect that any company of integrity would, however, work to constantly refine a product within its lifetime, and supply both constant improvements (in this case, firmware updates) and an open channel of communication to its clients.
In these days of prolific online communities, shutting developers and companies away behind closed doors will spell certain death for any technology.
A large, interested and knowledgeable online user community has been attempting to interact with SE for the past year –
http://my-symbian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27799
http://my-symbian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28242
The first generation UIQ3 phones, the P990i in particular, have been a source of constant grief for users who bought these phones in good faith based on their positive experiences with former UIQ devices such as the P910i. For the first few months there were constant and serious problems with both the phone and the PDA functionality.
As loyal customers, we were patient and tried to assist Sony Ericsson in defining and solving these problems. However, the announcement by Sony Ericsson that there would be no further firmware updates to these UIQ3 devices, when there were still so many bugs present and less than one year after launch, left us all with a bitter sense of abandonment.
Belatedly Sony Ericsson released one last firmware for the P990i alone, which unfortunately is still not available for non-generic and localized versions, fixing essentially the two major bugs we had pointed out to them. Even with this latest firmware, some features mentioned in the white paper are still not implemented.
At the close of a lengthy online discussion
(http://developer.sonyericsson.com/thread.jspa?threadID=39963)
we were advised that Sony Ericsson was looking at ways of opening new communication channels to it's customers. That response is dated 9 July and Sony Ericsson has not yet taken any visible steps to implement this.
Opening a reciprocal channel of communication to your smartphone users can only enhance the quality of software refinements essential to any smartphone‟s viability on the open market.
The Apple CEO‟s recent open letter to iPhone customers sets a good example for understanding and communicating with a client base which purchases sophisticated technology.
In conclusion, we would like to suggest the following :
--Continue support of UIQ3 devices until the remaining bugs and instabilities are fixed.
--Improved communication with SE smartphone customers -
- better call centre support
- issue change logs with every firmware update
- follow the example of many technology companies and open a forum or "betalab" where software issues can be discussed with a knowledgeable representative(s) from Sony Ericsson, as an adjunct to…
- thorough beta-testing.
Cordially
The My-Symbian UIQ3 user community
(Signed: http://my-symbian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34461)
16 Comments
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i have a nokia e90. bliss. utter bliss.
and this is coming from someone who has used 3 generations of the P-series. it was with a heavy heart that i signed the contract to move on to Nokia. but it feels great to have a device that truly integrates with my laptop, as it should be. i cant get over the disappointment that came from the p990. i feel let down.
I have a P1 and it is an absolute piece of garbage. it freezes, reboots, won't send mail, the interface is a disaster. I kick myself for spending so much money on this useless device.
I have exclusively bought Ericsson/Sony Ericsson products for more than 10 years but this phone is the end of the SE road for me. Never again.
Goodbye Sony Ericsson.
I have SE P1i, but it frustrates me every day. I continued using my old Nokia 5700.
P.S. Im 14 yrs old
Serious Concern has to come in Product Quality and Customer care
My sister bought W580i on Jan 6,2008.From day one it went into grave.Bad battery,no antenna functioning when locked,auto restarting,Not functioning mic,speakers to name a few.. i gave it for service on feb 12,2008. They said they will replace PCB. but till now (march 4 2008)approx a month back they are waiting for PCB from sony. The customer care 1800111800 for india was called number of times,but saying they cannt say the status.Also they are keep on saying SAME sentence...that is we will come back in two days....for past 25 day???? NO ONE SITTING THERE are aware of what is their role...also no role clarity...no procedure for tracking...i called 5 or 6 times...every time they are asking all details starting from wht model to when i gave and all...After repeated telling also no one is capable of tracking and telling me what is the status..
finally i got a idea that it must be a failure modal...but the company is not ready to declare it....
I have a P910, however I will not upgradeto the P1i, just as I chose not to upgrade to the P990. Both are a step backwards in my view, with awkward, non-intuitive interfaces. The PC Suite package can use some work, it should be able to back up items individually, like SMS backup and restore. Why can't the jotter alphabetise its entries?
I intend to use the P910 as long as practical, and then I am certain I'll switch to a Nokia again (many happy years until the superior P910 arrived). Does SE care? They should.
Good letter. I purchased P990i and now i'm thinking about exchanging it to other device, because unreasonable GSM functions stopping is so annoying and now i can't be sure, when i'm connected or not, just i'm constrained to send SMS for myself several times per day. My bad, that i haven't attended about SE decision to stop supporting this device.
Signed up on my-symbian just to sign this! Great letter. As the new owner of a p1i I am already witnessing severe delays in firmware and I sincerely hope things turn around soon.
Brilliant letter, had P range phones since the 800 and despite everything they promise they continually let us down. The P1 is a disgrace too. The software is counter-intuitive, has far too many levels, frustrates your work and mine's now become so corrupt it crashes on attenpting to enter any text. You sometimes get a bright and helpful person on Customer Support but not often enough. I seriously wish I'd never gone down the SE road and bought all the Memory sticks and accessories. If I could cancel my contract with O2 I'd be out like a shot. SE never learn all the lessons from their mistakes (witness the incompatability of their generally hopeless and cumbersome PC suites). How difficult can it be to give us a big P800/910 sized touchscreen smartphone that we can play music on with useful company support? COME ON SE Wake up yourselves!
May be too late to be relevant but the 990 was a disgrace- my wife has one and hates it. I have a P1 and it is also inferior to the 910s we had before. Absolutely agree with the letter's contents
The most of us are really in love with their handsets - don't hurt us again, because I'm afraid: I was looking for Nokia Phones...
i am pleased that you are trying to resolve some of the issues about the p990i but you have missed out one crucial (for me anyway) flaw, which is that although the phone is supposed to support streaming media, there is still no version of FLASH for the phone. this is my biggest gripe. please include this in your letter. i will happily sign.
Well, as m600i, p990 and even P1 are still not good enough, and keeping in mind previous bad support, I will skip SE when choosing my next phone.
Apart from the obvious RAM deficiency, the P990s don't seem to have passed any proper QA tests let alone any proper beta testing. The fact that at least two major bugs were discovered by users within hours of SE's release of what it called a satisfactory final firmware speaks volumes. So far I've had two P990s, the first one was reasonable in its behavior but developed power problems and was replaced by SE. The second one, which is also in the process of being replaced, was just nerve recking - several restarts per day and the GSM communication functions just stopping without any visible indication.
SE's behavior in this P990 story is just not acceptable from any company, let alone one that is supposed to be a leader in the communications field.
Fully support this, and signed it immediately. Good job, and now all we can do, is hope that SE listens!
A very polite letter, I would have asked for a complete recall of this joke called the P990, or for free upgrade to the next iteration (assuming its any better).
A beta test program disguised as the P990, where early adopters paid US$800+ to join the program.
Hi,
good letter..
Perhaps it's also worth mentioning, that all the problems around
UIQ3 have also resulted into very little software developments
by third-party developers which result in a poor and very
small software market around SE flagship products. I.e.
there is much more third-party software available for the old P910i
then for P990i which could be also a major drawback for a decision
to head for UIQ1.
Best
MD