As PR disasters go, having your flagship product pulled from stores in the run up to Christmas is pretty high up there on the list. Just ask Sony Ericsson who suffered this fate several weeks ago when the UK’s main retailers were forced to withdraw the Satio, the companies first 12 Megapixel camera phone, from sale due to a series of software faults. With customers complaints ranging from poor battery life to phones freezing and crashing, it was obvious something needed to be done to remedy the problem. Thankfully for consumers and the manufacturer themselves, Sony Ericsson duly obliged and have pushed out a firmware update.

The firmware update, release R1CA037, brings some much needed stability to the Satio eradicating the afore mentioned problems. Sony Ericsson have also gone on record to state that the new firmware should also bring general performance improvements with some users already commenting online of smoother navigation and faster application launches. The new firmware is shipping as standard with all new Sony Ericsson Satio’s which have returned to stores and are back on sale from today. For those of you with a Satio already, you can update your firmware here.

With just over two weeks left before the jolly fat man starts dishing out gifts, have Sony Ericsson pulled it out of the bag and saved Christmas? We ho-ho-hope so. Sorry.