The Sony-Ericsson K-790. A New Twist on The Camera Phone

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I recently had the chance to do a 6 question interview with a spokesperson of Sony Ericsson on their new mobile phone, the K-790. This mobile phone doubles as a high end camera.

1. The Sony Ericsson Cybershot phone looks very impressive. How is this phone different from other phones offered by Sony-Ericcson?

While Sony Ericsson has long been synonymous with quality imaging phones, the K790 Cyber-shot phone is more than ordinary camera phone with a Cyber-shot logo it. From the beginning the phone user interface boasts the well known Cyber-shot menu and feeling. Our continuous search for picture quality improvement lead us to use a great 3.2 MegaPixel camera module, which together with the Xenon flash allows you to take crisp, clear and colorful pictures even in the darkest environments.

To further enhance the experience, we added support for image and video stabilization and the unique function called BestPic, a useful feature when taking photos of subjects that move (or of people that always seem to close their eyes when their photo is being taken). BestPic allows you to catch moments that happen before the actual key press. BestPic will start taking photos once the autofocus has been activated and it will continue to do so until you decide to take the shot. In addition it will give you four more photos after the key has been pressed. In total, nine pictures are presented in full resolution (4+1+4) for you to choose from.

We felt an urge to go further to deliver a true mobile Cyber-shot experience. Thus, we developed the Photo Blogging application, the fastest, easiest and most convenient way to share pictures with friends and family using the World Wide Web. To make this the best possible experience for the user we partnered with Google Blogger, one of the world’s largest blog service providers.

2. How easy is it for people to share and print their photos taken with the Cybershot?

The K790 supports PictBridge, a common standard for connecting devices such as digital still cameras and phones to a printer without using a computer. The standard is supported by many manufacturers of printers including Canon, Fuji, HP, Olympus, Seiko Epson and Sony. The user can connect the K790 to a PictBridge compliant printer using the included USB cable. The print command is found in the Cyber-shot user interface.

3. Does the Cybershot phone offer Video Recording Capabilities?
Yes

4. What type of customer is this product geared towards?

The K790 targets a consumer group called Selective Pioneers by Sony Ericsson. They want to be perceived as “connoisseurs.” Symbols of success, wealth and status are important and technology is for showing off as well as for use. We believe the K790 has the potential to attract a broad range of Selective Pioneers, users of digital still cameras today as well as those considering starting using one.

We see three different scenarios:
• People who do not carry their digital still camera every day, but quite often regret that they have left it at home. As always, they have their phone in the pocket. .
• People who have a camera phone today but want to be able to take better pictures on more occasions. They are looking for quality improvements like better resolution and a real flash.
• People who have a mobile phone without camera today and want a new phone and a digital camera as well. They are attracted by the design and the capacity of having a great phone and a great camera in one.

5. What other “must have” features does the Cybershot offer?

When looking at the phone and messaging related features of the K790, one soon realizes that it is an advanced mobile phone too. EDGE technology keeps the speed up when browsing the web, receiving RSS news feeds via the Internet or sending e-mail. It supports push e-mail with instant delivery of important messages forwarded from a company e-mail server. Support of USB 2.0 mass storage and Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) give consumers the option to expand the memory capacity of the phone with up to 1 GB, and even more when memory cards of higher capacity become available. The K790 also has a music player and a video player. With the Disc2Phone software and USB cable in the phone package, the user can rip CDs and transfer them to the internal memory or on an optional memory card. Stereo headphones are included. Synchronization of the calendar and contacts in the phone with Microsoft Outlook in a computer can be done via the USB cable or Bluetooth™.

6. Is there anything you’d like to mention that wasn’t specifically asked above?

Color: Velvet Black
Type of screen: 262,144 color TFT
Screen resolution: 240 x 320 pixels
Talk time/Standby time GSM: Up to 7 hrs/350hrs

Availability: Fall 2006; MSRP $499, but we expect to see it in the 300’s with carrier promotions.

Please visit: Sony Ericsson

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