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Now here's a hugely welcome turn up for the books...

While meeting Sony Ericsson to discuss something I can't tell you about (sorry, NDA until Thursday) I managed to dig up possibly even more interesting news: the company is dumping Sony's own Memory Stick Micro cards (M2) in favour of MicroSD in its handsets.

The decision was revealed when I quizzed Sony Ericsson Global Marketing Director Fortuné Alexander about the company's use of proprietary technology. As I pointed out last week the new Satio, Aino and Yari phones all had microSD slots and the devices I can't reveal today were also fitted with this widely adopted format. I queried if this was the beginning of the end for M2, if all future Sony Ericsson models would instead use microSD?

"Yes, we are moving in that direction," explained Alexander and in a stroke, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. After all, while Sony Ericsson handsets haven't been as progressive as we would have hoped in recent years their steadfast use of M2 has added an extra ball and chain. Furthermore, such a decision must place a question mark over the future of Sony's entire, convoluted Memory Stick line since only Sony and Sony Ericsson use them at all.

How 'convoluted'? Well, let's see: in historical order we have the Memory Stick, Memory Stick Select, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo and Memory Stick Micro. Yep, good riddance. Now couple this news with a) Sony Ericsson's surprise decision to join the emerging universal charger format (micro USB) in February and b) the progressive business strategy I saw today and perhaps the company can turn things around.

Certainly the recent 358m Q1 euro loss must cause the company nightmares, but Sony Ericsson does seem to have learnt its lesson. The question is: has it learnt it quickly enough?

Link:
Sony Ericsson UK

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