Sony scores AT&T deal for Cyber-shot
Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-shot will be carried by AT&T, giving the manufacturer a better shot of improving its lowly market position. The firm has also reached an agreement to have its Walkman phone on the network.
The Cyber-shot phone will be a new model, the C905a. While it’s got most of the now-common smartphone features (including GPS navigation and a music player), the slider-phone is primarily a digital camera. At 8.1 megapixels it’s the most detailed camera on an AT&T phone and includes high end-features such as face detection, red eye reduction and Bestpic, which takes seven shots in a single shutter click with the user deciding which one to keep.
The AT&T tie-up means that the device, which is currently changing hands for $400 or more in unlocked form, will cost $179.99 (after rebate) with a 2-year service agreement.
Aside from the Walkman feature (sadly a multi-file-format digital music player rather than a tape deck), the main marketing point of the W518 is that the default standby screen is a constantly updated Facebook feed. There’s also a simple link to allow users to take pictures with the phone’s camera and upload them straight to their Facebook account.
There are also some neat, if hardly killer, motion-related features. An accelerometer gives “flick-of-the-wrist” control over the music player’s skip, shuffle and volume controls. And a motion sensor in the camera lens means users can set an alarm to snooze or reject a phone call by waving their hands over the phone. The handset costs $49.99 with the same rebate/service agreement requirements as the Cyber-shot.
The AT&T deal is something for a breakthrough for Sony Ericsson, which has struggled to gain market share without many major network carrier deals for its handsets. While there aren’t any major expectations of the firm having smash hits, being able to offer the handsets at competitive prices gives them a chance to compete on quality, particularly among targeted audiences such as serious photography enthusiasts.
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