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Sony Mobile

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For an arrangement of Sony Ericsson products, see list of Sony Ericsson products
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB
Company typeJoint venture
IndustryTelecommunications
FoundedOctober 3 2001
HeadquartersHead Office:
United Kingdom London, United Kingdom
Incorporated:
Sweden Sweden
Key people
Hideki Komiyama (President) Anders Runevad (EVP)
ProductsMobile phones
Mobile music devices
Wireless systems
Wireless voice devices
Hi-Tech accessories
Wireless data devices
Revenue€10,959 million (2006)
€997 million (2006)
Number of employees
~8,000
ParentSony Corporation (50%)
Ericsson AB (50%)
Websitewww.sonyericsson.com

Sony Ericsson is a joint venture established in 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to make mobile phones. The stated reason for this venture is to combine Sony's consumer electronics expertise with Ericsson's technological leadership in the communications sector. Both companies have stopped making their own mobile phones.

The company's global management is based in Hammersmith, London, and it has research & development teams in Sweden, Japan, China, Germany, the United States, India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

While Sony Ericsson has been enjoying strong growth recently, its South Korean rival LG Electronics overtook it in Q1 2008 due to the company's profits falling significantly by 43% to €133 million, sales falling by 8% and market share dropping from 9.4% to 7.9%, despite favourable conditions that the handset market is expected to grow by 10% in 2008. The situation is getting worse as Sony Ericsson announced another profit warning in June 2008[1] and saw net profit crash by 97% in Q2 2008, announcing that it would cut 2,000 jobs, leading to wide fear that Sony Ericsson is on the verge of decline along with its struggling rival, Motorola.[2]

Sony Ericsson has, as of July 18, 2008, approximately 9,400 employees and 2,500 contractors worldwide. The company's current President is as of November 1 Hideki Komiyama (小宮山英樹), who has replaced Miles Flint, and the Corporate Executive Vice President is Anders Runevad.

History

Ericsson, which had been in the cellular phone market for decades, decided to divest this business in 2001 following huge losses. Ericsson had decided to source on chips for its phones from a single source, a Philips facility in New Mexico. In March 2000 a fire at the Philips factory contaminated the sterile facility. Philips assured Ericsson and Nokia (the other major customer of the facility) that production would be delayed by less than a week. When it became clear that production would actually be compromised for months, Ericsson was faced with a serious shortage. Nokia had already begun to obtain parts from alternative sources, but Ericsson's position was much worse as both production of current models and the launch of new ones was held up.[3]

In the United States, Ericsson partnered with General Electric in the early nineties, primarily to establish a US presence and brand recognition.

Sony Ericsson is the global title sponsor of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and works with the Association to promote the Tour in over 80 cities.

Sony Ericsson acquired UIQ Technology, a Swedish software company from Symbian Ltd. in February 2007. UIQ will remain an independent company, Miles Flint announced.[citation needed]

On October 15 2007, Sony Ericsson announced on Symbian Smartphone Show that they will be selling half of its UIQ share to Motorola thus making UIQ technology owned by two large mobile phone companies.

Types of phones

Main areas of interest

The Sony Ericsson K750i is one of the most successful Sony Ericsson products.

Sony Ericsson currently concentrates on the categories of: music, camera, business (web and email), design, all-rounder, and budget focused phones. Its four largest categories are:

  • The Walkman-branded W series music phones, launched in 2005.
    The Sony Ericsson W-series music phones are notable for being the first music-centric series mobile phones, prompting a whole new market for portable music that was developing at the time. Sony Ericsson’s Walkman phones have previously been commercially endorsed by pop stars Christina Aguilera and Jason Kay across Europe.
  • The Cyber-Shot-branded line of phones, launched in 2006 in newer models of the K series phones.
    This range of phones are focused on the quality of the camera included with the phone. Cyber-shot phones always include a flash, some with a xenon flash, and also include auto-focus cameras. Sony Ericsson kicked off its global marketing campaign for Cyber-shot phone with the launch of ‘Never Miss a Shot’. The campaign featured top female tennis players Ana Ivanović and Daniela Hantuchova. On February 10 2008, the series has been expanded with the announcement of C702 and C902 phones.
  • The BRAVIA-branded line of phones, launched in 2007 Japan market only.
    Now, two mobile phones (FOMA SO903iTV and FOMA SO906i) uses BRAVIA brand. BRAVIA branded phone are able to watch 1seg terrestrial television.
  • The UIQ smartphone range of mobiles, introduced with the P series in 2003 with the introduction of P800.
    They are notable for their touchscreens, QWERTY keypads (on most models), and use of the UIQ interface Platform from Symbian OS. This has since expanded into the M series and G series phones.
  • The Xperia range of mobile phones, heralded by the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 on February 2008 at the Mobile World Congress (formerly 3GSM) held in Barcelona Spain , had opened the door for integration of Windows Mobile Operating System into Sony Ericsson powerhouse smartphones. XPERIA was the first trademark promoted by the Sony Ericsson as its own and is designated to provide technological convergence among its target user base

Phone series description

Series Branding Description Origin
C Cyber-shot Camera focused phones. Cyber-shot
D T-Mobile T-mobile network exclusive phones. Deutsche Telekom
F Vodafone (partial) Vodafone network exclusive phones; Gaming focused phones Vodafone / Fun
G - Compact Touchscreen series. Generation Web
J - Low-end series Junior
K Cyber-shot (partial) All-around phones Kamera (Swedish for "camera")
M - Business focused smartphones. Messaging
P - Powerhouse smartphones. PDA
R - Phones with built-in AM/FM radio Radio
S - Fashion and camera focused phones. Swivel, 'S'lider, 'S'napshot
T - All-around phones Tala (Swedish for "talk")
V Vodafone Vodafone network exclusive phones. Vodafone
W Walkman Music-focused phones. Walkman
X Xperia Convergence and powerhouse devices. Xperia
Z - Design-oriented phones Ze Bobber (Origin unknown)

Naming convention

Current system

After the 2008 Mobile World Congress, Sony Ericsson announced their new naming system comprising of four characters, each character denoting the "Series", the "Range/Class", the "Version" and the "Form Factor" respectively.

Series Range/Class Version Form Factor
(see above for series letters) 1-4: Low-end
5-7: Mid-range
8-9: High-end 		(in numerical order of succession) 0-2: Candybar
3-5: Slider
6-8: Clamshell
9: Others

"a" and "c" suffixes are used to denote models specifically for American and Chinese markets, respectively [4]

Previous systems

Sony Ericsson has used three methods in the past of naming their mobile products:

  • The most common format uses a total of five (or six) characters, eg. K750i.
    This format begins with a capital letter to denote the series of the phone (K750i). This is then followed by three numbers (K750i). The first number indicates the sub-series of the phone, the second indicates the amount of progression from the previous release, i.e. K700i to K750i, and the third number is always either a '0' or '8' and the letter '8' is used either to show a variation of the phone destined for a different market without a feature, eg. the W888 is a W880i without 3G, or it is used to separate phones which have identical specifications but the designs are different, eg. K610i and the K618i. Finally, the lowercase letter at the end of the model name describes the market for which a product is intended; these are: a for the Americas, c for China, and i stands for an international version; there is also an 'im' suffix used for branding i-mode phones. Often the last letter is left out to describe the phone generically with no region specific branding.
  • A newer format (which has only been used on one phone to date) uses a total of three characters, eg. P1i. It is believed that this format is intended for naming flagship models of each phone series due to the limited numbering combinations.
    It begins with a capital letter to denote the series of the phone (P1i). The number is used to indicate the amount of progression from the previous release (P1i) and the final lowercase letter, as explained above, describes the market for which a product is intended. Again, often the last letter is left out to describe the phone generically with no region specific branding.
  • The oldest naming format uses a total of four characters, eg. T68i. This format continued from the naming scheme of the Ericsson mobile business and was only ever used once.
    This format begins with a capital letter to denote the series of the phone (T68i). The first number indicates the sub-series of the phone (T68i) and the second letter indicates the amount of progression from the previous release. The last lowercase letter indicates that it is an update of the previous model, i.e. T68 to T68i.

Another peculiar naming format was the one used in naming the Z1010; this format has not been used since the Z1010.

Furthermore, Sony Ericsson always give their phones codenames when developing. Mainly to keep the information secret and to prevent leaks. All codenames are girl names, and some have been taken from the female players of the Sony Ericsson-sponsored tennis tournament, WTA. A complete list of codenames can be found here.

Financial information

Sony Ericsson posted its first profit in the second half of 2003. Since then, the sales figures from phones have been:

  • 2004: 42 million units[citation needed]
  • 2005: 50 million units[5]
  • 2006: 74 million units[6]
  • 2007: 101.3 million units[7]

Also, Sony Ericsson sold 60 m music enabled phones in 2006, including 17 m Walkman devices, underlining how its products are more popular than Apple's iPod. Apple sold 46 m iPods in 2006. According to the Swedish Magazine M3s issue 7/2006 Sony Ericsson is the best-selling phone brand in the Nordic countries, followed by Nokia.

According to the IT research firm Gartner, in the third quarter of 2006, Sony Ericsson was the fourth largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world after Nokia, Motorola and Samsung. It held a 9% global market share.

Compatibility

During the E3 Media and Business Summit, Feras Jad, Saudi Telecom representative showcased a Sony Ericsson phone using the PlayStation's XMB. A select group of phones are also said to integrate into PlayStation Home (final product)

During the announcement of Sony Ericsson K850, W960 and W910. Some review sites have shown that those mentioned phones sport a new media manager to replace the standard Sony Ericsson File Manager which possesses a UI that resembles the XMB interface found on Sony PS3 and PSP products. The mobile developer site confirmed from their spec sheets and white papers that the XMB media manager is standard to the phones running Java Platform 8 also known as A200 Platform.

See also

References

  1. ^ Sony Ericsson issues second profit warning of the year, hopes to break even in Q2 - Engadget
  2. ^ Sony Ericsson Profits Crash 48% - TrustedReviews
  3. ^ "When the chain breaks" (June 17, 2006). The Economist: A survey of logistics, p. 18.
  4. ^ New Nomenclature of Upcoming Sony Ericsson Phones - Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog
  5. ^ Sony Ericsson reports record shipments, sales and profits, sonyericsson.com, January 18 2006.
  6. ^ Record quarter caps a record year for Sony Ericsson, sonyericsson.com, January 17 2007.
  7. ^ Sony Ericsson sells over 100 million handsets in 2007, sonyericsson.com, January 16 2008.

http://mobile.optima.ua/news.php?news_id=18016

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