Sony hits out at mobile makers peddling poor handsets

NEWS The head of Sony's wireless-gaming division has hit at mobile phone makers, saying poorly made handsets being rushed too quickly to market are hurting his industry. Bug-filled phones are not only turning off gamers, but also game developers who want to take part in what's supposed to be an $8bn per year industry by 2007, said John Smedley, CEO of Sony Entertainment. Smedley told a gathering of telephone industry executives attending a trade show in Las Vegas: "Maybe I'm the only one saying this, but some people are building phones that aren't very stable. Let's leave them in the labs for a little longer." Games are among the earliest wireless enticements carriers have available for their subscribers. Generally, game makers do all the development and get the bulk of any revenue from carriers. Smedley said game makers are the first to suffer the negative effect of disconnections and fading screens because games now dominate the data options of Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless. Buggy cell phones are not a new problem. Finnish cell phone manufacturer Nokia recalled thousands of phones this year and last year because colour screens faded to black after a few hours of use. Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo also has had its share of bad phones. The carrier had to recall tens of thousands during the past two years. Ben Charny writes for News.com