It appears that Carphone Warehouse, the UK’s largest independent mobile phone retailer, has pulled Sony Ericsson’s flagship Satio smartphone from its stores. The internal memo, which was leaked to GSM Arena, suggests that buggy software is the cause – the Satio runs a version of the Nokia-led Symbian S60 5th Edition – and that Carphone is “investigating a solution as a priority.” If software is the problem then the solution will obviously need to come from Sony Ericsson themselves, so we’ll wait and see how long that takes.

However, none of this I find surprising. I had it on good authority some weeks ago that Carphone Warehouse had already returned a batch of Satios on Day One of its release. The issue: buggy software. Continue reading »

And I believe in the tooth fairy.

Some stories are best left alone but that hasn’t stopped Sony Ericsson (or me) from following up on my original story — Is Sony Ericsson short changing Satio users? — regarding why the company’s flagship Satio smartphone appears to be shipping with a smaller battery than the one in the possession of Anders Westin, Sony Ericsson’s Head of Software Relations, Symbian Software.

On Friday a Sony Ericsson PR rep called (and emailed) to explain that there had been a misunderstanding. Apparently Anders’ Satio does have the same sized battery as the retail version — 1000mAh — but that the “first ‘0’ had been scraped half off, so it looked like a ‘3’.”

Ahh, that explains it then.

Although I’m sure I recall Anders saying it was a 1350mAh not a 1300mAh, which would require two numbers to have been defaced. And, as one colleague pointed out, it’s pretty hard to scratch a battery that spends most of its life living under a battery cover. But what do I know?

(Wish me luck next time I request a Sony Ericsson review unit.)