Amid sighs of disapointment by mobile phone fans, Sony Ericsson's senior marketing manager, Richard Dorman, has ruled out any PSP gaming phone or Bravia mobile TV phone for the UK, at least for the next twelve months.

"It is not a focus for us with the UK and western European market at the moment," he said. "I've seen our road map for the next 12 months and neither of those two handsets will feature in it."

However, this is not necessarily unexpected, and doesn't rule out either of those phones for 2009. Read on to find out why...

Sony Ericsson already have a Bravia mobile TV phone in Japan, and so are perfectly capable of releasing one in the UK and other Western markets. However, whereas mobile TV was expected to be the next great thing for 2007's mobile phones, the technology has proven to be a disappointment across Europe.

Hardly anyone uses the service, and sales of Virgin Mobile's Lobster mobile TV phone were so bad, the company stopped selling it.

Sony Ericsson has always been a somewhat conservative company, choosing to release best of class phones that focus primarily on a single feature once the market for that feature has been established. For example, the Sony Ericsson Walkman phone series are grade A music phones that use the Walkman brand to push the phone ahead of its competitors in a market that Sony Ericsson knows is large and can support their sales targets.

Equally, the Sony Ericsson Cyber Shot series of phones were a no-brainer for the company. Everyone wants a camera phone, so the market existed for someone to sell a camera phone that rivalled low end digital cameras. Step forward Sony Ericsson and the Cyber Shot brand.

Both gaming phone and mobile TV phones have had somewhat of an uncertain history, though. Nokia's ill-fated N-Gage phones fell flat on their face, despite the company spending millions in marketing and releasing two different models. Equally, mobile TV has performed poorly, and so both markets represent risky options for Sony Ericsson to enter into, particularly with such well-known brands as PSP and Bravia.

Despite releasing a Bravia phone in Japan, Dorman says that "the Japanese market is a bit more advanced. It is treated as a fiercely independent market, not necessarily something that fits in with the rest of the business."

As such, just because a phone is released in Japan, doesn't mean a similar phone will be released in other markets.

However, all is not lost. The main reason Sony Ericsson are reluctant to release a PSP phone is the effect it will have on already poor PSP sales. The company will only consider releasing such a phone at the end of the PSP's natural life, which, given its current poor performance, may be sooner than expected.

As such, although a PSP phone definitely won't be on the table for 2008, don't rule it out for 2009 as a replacement for the PSP. As for the Bravia phone, unless mobile TV takes off in a big way across Europe and the US, don't expect to find one in your local Carphone Warehouse anytime soon.

[Source: MobileToday]