Please, Sony Ericsson -- get the point!

Sony Ericsson today unveiled the Aspen -- a QWERTY candy-bar phone that sport Microsoft's latest Windows Mobile 6.5.3 OS. We're hoping that it will fiercely compete to QWERTY moguls of today like the Nokia E71/E72 or be a better alternative to the Samsung Omnia Pro B7320. It looks quite elegant and should appeal to business professionals.

 

 But moreover, there's one big welcome change -- Finally! Have a look for yourself:

 

Still didn't get it? The nasty Sony Ericsson proprietary Fast Port is gone! It's replaced with what seems to be a microUSB port. The Fast Port was undeniably a flawed piece of junk. And it used to show its ugly face in every Sony Ericsson phone out there (except Windows Mobile based XPERIA X1).

I and many others I personally know will testify to the claim that after a few months of use, the Fast Port would start acting up -- causing a loose connection hell that would suddenly disconnect your headset when you put your phone in the pocket, or even stop charging the phone if it was moved a little. Secondly, SE simply refused to put a 3.5mm headphone jack even in their high-end Walkman music phones and rather relied on the Fast Port. My colleague lamented about the same issue a while back.

That's a good first step SE! Now just stick to the 3.5mm jack/microUSB port combination in non-Windows Mobile phone too! Let's hope this is the last we'll see of the Fast Port. I salute thee good bye - with a finger that's placed between my ring and index one!