Sony Ericsson is readying a series of multimedia kiosks, aiming to save operators, retailers and users' time and money when it comes to fixing common phone faults.

An early sample of the kiosks was presented at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. The best thing to do in case of phone performance problems is to update the firmware, but that involves sending the handset back to a service center, which can take several days at best.

This involves costs for the retailers which must pack up and ship the phones, while network operators miss out on call revenue and customers have to give up using their mobile phones for a period of time.

This is why Sony Ericsson wants to simplify the whole process and allow customers to update their own phones at multimedia kiosks installed in stores.

Each kiosk contains a small PC, featuring a sensitive flat-panel display and docking cradle for a mobile phone. Customers will be able to place their phones into the cradle after removing the SIM card and follow the on-screen prompts to update the firmware.

According to Sony Ericsson's staff, the whole process will take just about 7 minutes, which is considerably better than sitting whole days without the mobile phone. The kiosk's computer will also contain a variety of multimedia content that users can consult while their phone is updated.

Because of the kiosks being somewhat expensive, they won't appear in every store. A few hundred such kiosks will be built, according to Jesper Lykking, responsible for service portfolio management at Sony Ericsson. At other points of sale, Sony Ericsson is also considering putting a kit consisting of a cradle and software CD so that a standard PC can perform the upgrade.