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Better late than never, and in a last ditch attempt to survive, Sony Ericsson decided to jump on the Android bandwagon and release their X10 range of phone this time last year (in the UK at least). It was announced in the previous November that the phone had class leading specs including an 8MP camera and 1GHz processor, but 5 months down the line when the phone was actually offered to customers, what were ‘class leading’ were now the norm even lacking in certain areas such as RAM and lack of multitouch.

Their product blog dropped small hints and videos of what to expect from the phone during the run up to its release, with Sony Ericsson promising updates to its outdated software soon after release. I, being a long time Sony Ericsson fan, decided to give the X10 a chance anyway and had been following its leaks since early September 09, so snapped it up in its 1st week of availability. As an Android virgin I was instantly enraptured by the interface, but expected a little more from a gig of power under the hood, and after a look at the X10′s competitor, the HTC Desire, realized I might have made a mistake. Outdated ‘Donut’ software and slow clunky proprietary apps such as Timescape and Mediascape made the X10 look years out of date before it even hit the shelf; even with the prospect of a quick update to 2.1, more fool me for buying it.

With the release of the X10, Sony Ericsson pushed a fairly big ad campaign including TV ads, billboards and large stands in phone stores to draw customers like moths to a light to the shiny new toys they had released.

Timescape was a nice little widget, but the app itself was next to useless and Mediascape was replaced by another music app as soon as I logged into the market. Even the updates Sony Ericsson released to try and speed them up made no real difference and they only serve to slow the phone down and fill its already lacking RAM.

Sony Ericsson finally released its much promised 2.1 update in October…a full 7 months after the phone’s release! So much for an update soon after release. Due to the new 720p recording offered by the update Sony Ericsson decided to rebrand the same old 7 month old X10 as the X10HD, resulting in many new and unknowing users into purchasing a much outdated phone.

Sony Ericsson was due to give another update to the X10 users in December 2010 to improve Timescape and Mediascape, but due to in-house problems this was delayed by a month, leading to thousands of comments filling up the Product blog, with users complaining of the proprietary apps, locked bootloader and slow user experience. In the end the update never really surfaced, but Sony Ericsson did announce something to make X10 users the world over smile…Multitouch!

This update was finally received at the start of 2011, but Sony Ericsson then stated that other updates for the X10 had been scrapped meaning no DNLA or 2.2, being told that the X10 ran better with 2.1 (eh?!) and the next thing they were announcing a new range of flagships including the Arc, with Sony Ericsson bosses even being quoted as saying that X10 users were test subjects. Sony Ericsson always promised 2 years of updates and support for their phones, but the X10 was being dropped after less than 9 months of availability in USA. Sony Ericsson seemingly then forgot about their current customers, the people who had brought them back from making hundreds of job cuts and plant closings, to move on to thinner and faster prospects.

The new line of phones included updated processors and Bravia engines, but more importantly Sony Ericsson totally rethought how they coded Android. Everything in the Gingerbread builds of the new phones was more modular; Timescape and Mediascape now lived in widget form and Sony Ericsson’s customizations don’t fall as deep into Androids DNA. They said this will allow quicker updates, but what about the original ‘test’ customers? AT&T stopped selling the X10 & the Product blog stopped answering to users comments, ignoring the X10 in favor of the Arc & Play. With the new phones Sony Ericsson also launched its biggest ever marketing campaign.

Seemingly the X10 community wasn’t just going to sit back and take being thrown out in the cold, with developers on the XDA forums generating working ROMS of 2.2 and even 2.3, and the Product blog getting bombarded with hundreds of angry comments from disgruntled users on each new post. How is it that a few guys working out of their houses can do something that Sony Ericsson’s hundreds of developers can’t while also having to bypass Sony Ericsson’s security measures such as locked bootloader?

The backlash seemed to have an effect recently and Sony Ericsson realized that they really didn’t want to lose all of their customers. Sony Ericsson backtracked against everything it had said previously said and announced a Gingerbread update for X10 users coming in Q2/3, but with a loss of certain (unnamed) features and no update for X10 mini/X10 mini pro/X8. Some may ask if X10 users now have anything to complain about, but is it too little, too late? Have X10 users been burnt too much already for this update to change their thoughts about Sony Ericsson? I for one have already told dozens of people never to buy Sony Ericsson products again after the way they have treated their customers, and what of the mini and X8 users? S.E. have given a master class in how not to treat customers with the developments of the X10, and some may argue its Product blog has done more bad than good in the process and while I am grateful for Sony for the Gingerbread update it feels like they are only giving it to the customers because developers have already managed to achieve the task and Sony had the code lying around from the Arc. Also all of the new range of phones are running single core processors while all of S.E’s main competitors are announcing duel core beasts; Sony seems to still be too slow for the advancements of a post-android world.

What next? Well Sony has made too many mistakes for this user and sadly, I can safely say that my next phone won’t carry the Sony Ericsson branding.

Submitted By: Jay Keeley