Sony Ericsson goes green with new handsets

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 4 Jun 2009 at 11:19

Sony Ericsson has announced plans to launch two environmentally friendly phones, as it looks to spice up its product line.

The C901 GreenHeart and Naite will be manufactured from 50% recycled materials, sold in smaller packages and have user manuals that are electronic. Sony Ericsson also claims they will use less power.

The phones themselves are fairly entry-level, with the C901 sporting a five megapixel autofocus camera and support for 3G. Naite takes things even more old-school with a two megapixel camera and 2.2in display.

The company also announced plans to cut 20% of its carbon dioxide emissions by 2015, as it follows in the footsteps of rival Nokia. Nokia began renewing its packaging in 2006 and claims to have saved 100 million euros in less than a year.

Last year Nokia's chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, showed a prototype of a phone made fully of recycled materials at the Mobile World Congress trade show, but the model has not reached production.

The handset industry is closely followed by environmental organisations around the world due to its large scale. More than one billion phones are sold globally each year, which requires the use of sales boxes, add-ons and tonness of rare raw materials.