Sony Ericsson goes green on handsets
Sony Ericsson may be late to the game when it comes to launching an app store for its mobile phones, but it’s surging ahead in what it thinks might be another major industry trend: green devices.
The handset maker yesterday announced two new phones, the C901 GreenHeart (see below) and the Naite, each reducing handsets’ carbon footprints by up to 15 percent. The phones will include in-phone manuals (as opposed to paper), less packaging and morerecycled plastic. The devices will also come pre-loaded with applications that will help users track their own carbon and energy footprints.
The C901 feature phone will cost between $278 and $416 without subsidies and will be available first in Europe at the end of this month before going global. The Naite, described to me as a low-end 3G device, is aimed at developing 3G-friendly markets like China, and will ship with a reduced price tag of around $139.
The devices are part of a larger strategy at Sony Ericsson to reduce its use of environmentally harmful products and procedures across the company by 20 percent by 2015. By that same deadline, Sony Ericsson is aiming for its whole ecosystem of manufacturers and developers to reduce its carbon footprint by 15 percent.
That could be a tall — and unrealizable — order when you consider the dozens of far-flung equipment manufacturers and design manufacturers that are involved in making these handsets for the lowest price possible. Still, initiatives like this could be a boost to the cleantech marketplace. A spokesperson for Sony Ericsson tells me that manufacturing processes and materials currently make up a third of a product’s entire carbon footprint.
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