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Sony Ericsson Mac Turnaround?

Sony Ericsson P800Many Apple users rejoiced at the recent showcase with Sony Ericsson President and Apple CEO Steve Jobs, as the start of a Mac compatible phone partnership.


Sony Ericsson P800Many Apple users rejoiced at the recent showcase with Sony Ericsson President and Apple CEO Steve Jobs, as the start of a Mac compatible phone partnership.

”There is great synergy between Sony Ericsson and Apple in terms of how we see new services developing for the consumer and in our commitment to make applications easy to use,” said Katsumi Ihara, president of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. “Apple’s approach to working with mobile technology will scale well into the next generation phones that take on imaging, music and entertainment functions, and we see many more ways that our products can complement each other in the future.”

As Mac fans across the planet watched the Web streamed performance, many will now feel duped by the company’s failure to make their very next phone, the long-awaited P800, Mac compatible.

In an email to us today concerning the P800’s compatibility, Mike Rowlands from Sony Ericsson Customer Support stated clearly, “We do not provide support for connectivity with Apple products”. “We do not currently have plans to release drivers for connectivity with Apple products, however this may change in the future”.

The phone is, indeed, every bit the “21st Century communications device” Sony Ericsson claim it to be. However, the decision to bundle an impressive PC-only software suite is great disappointment to the tens of thousands of Mac users who have been loyally waiting for the product’s release from the first scheduled date, in September 2002.

Many are now wondering if Mr. Ihara’s comments constitute a case for consumer misrepresentation. Particularly those who have misguidedly purchased the product, in the belief that it would provide the functions it claims, for the Mac platform.

As yet, Sony Ericsson have failed to schedule a date for Mac compatibility, and it is unknown whether the next release of Apple’s iSync will provide a solution for the countless frustrated Mac users around the world.

Although SE support indicated that they don’t support the Mac, comments on our P800 story from 8 March indicate that the P800 does, in fact, work with the Mac as a Bluetooth device and modem. It does not currently support iSync because of the “SyncML specs on the P800.” Hopefully Apple and Sony Ericsson are working feverishly to bring the full power of this phone to Mac OS X.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.