ME exec editor Tim Green asks what's in a mobile phone name.
I can never believe how good the handset companies are at keeping secrets. They employ so many people in R&D and manufacturing, and there are so many bloggers giving freely of their precious spare time to bring us rumours and speculation.God bless their fearless hearts. Yet still no one had a clue what the original iPhone would look like until Jobs held one in his hand. And the 3G iPhone. Who saw that coming? Okay, bad example.
This week Sony Ericsson sprang a surprise with its new F305, with built-in accelerometer for motion-enabled Wii-style gaming. I tried out the fishing game at the launch event and was, er, hooked.
The joypad-style controls marked this out as the games phone everyone expected from SE – although not the PlayStation branded device the market is clearly praying for. I suspect that will come eventually. After all, SE had camera phones before it felt confident enough in the specs to badge them Cyber-Shot.
Although not PlayStation, the new handset’s name is still significant. It was SE’s first ‘F’ series model, and the company told me this stands for ‘fun’ – and that subsequent product launches will be built around entertainment propositions, which could be gaming or music or community etc. That strikes me as a significant advance for the content industry. Especially as the F series is pitched at the entry-level consumer.
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Of course, SE will be hoping for the same level of success from the new family member as it has had from its older siblings: the W (for Walkman) series, and the C (for Cyber-Shot) series. However, as an Englishman I must point out that F, W and C are also the first letters of our nation’s most cherished profanities. It makes me laugh every time I think of it.
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