Sony mobile

Ericsson 's only electronic components manufacturing component for mobile phones in the 1990s was Philips ' New Mexico factory. In March 2000, a fire broke out at the plant, destroying the equipment and disabling production lines. Philips hastened to reassure Ericsson and Nokia (which was also the customer of the chips from there) that the production would be suspended for no more than a week. It soon became clear that troubleshooting would take several months, and Ericsson was faced with a shortage of components. This cast doubt on her future as a mobile phone manufacturer. At the same time, problems with the supply of chips also affected Nokia, which was forced to urgently seek new suppliers of equipment. Ericsson, which was the third largest manufacturer of mobile phones at the beginning of 2001, faced serious risks from a fire. In order to reduce production costs, the company decided to cooperate with Asian manufacturers, primarily with Sony.

In August 2001, Sony and Ericsson reached an agreement on the terms of the merger of their mobile divisions and further cooperation. The total number of employees at the time of the founding of the combined enterprise was 3,500 people. Since 2002, both companies have finally stopped producing phones under their own brands, and the lineup planned for 2002-2003 was already produced under the Sony Ericsson trademark. Both companies had at that time rich experience in the production of mobile phones, which allowed combining existing developments for the benefit of new products. In particular, Sony phones used the JogDial navigation wheel for the first time, which was later successfully used in Sony digital players and P-series smartphones Sony Ericsson, and many devices of the newly formed company released during 2002 inherited the concept of Ericsson phones.

The priority task for Sony Ericsson was the release of mobile phones with the possibility of digital shooting and other multimedia functions, for example, the ability to upload video clips, flexible menu settings, the convenience of working with music files, and so on. By the end of 2002, Sony Ericsson launched several models of mobile phones with color displays and various multimedia capabilities, which was an innovation in the mobile device industry of that time. At the same time, the joint venture continued to suffer losses, despite the successful sale of some models.

The beginning of change

In June 2002, Sony Ericsson announced the cessation of production of mobile phones standard CDMA (Code division multiple access) for the US market and announced its desire to focus on the GSM standard as the most promising technology in the field of mobile communications. In October 2003, the company recorded its first net profit from sales of mobile phones. The first successful model of Sony Ericsson, which brought the company popularity and recognition of users around the world, is considered ^{[by whom? ]} T610 . Functionality T610 has set a new bar in the mobile device market. Both design and unprecedented by the standards of 2003 capabilities were successfully combined in the phone: a large color screen, an e-mail client, support for MMS , WAP 2.0 , GPRS , infrared , Bluetooth and much more. In addition, in the same year, the company introduced the P800 smartphone, which has become popular in many regional markets. And soon after that, in October 2003, at the international exhibitions in Las Vegas and Beijing, the P900 model was shown, which compares favorably with its predecessor in speed, ease of operation and compactness.

In 2004, the share of Sony Ericsson increased from 5.6% in the first quarter to 7% in the second. In the same year, the company introduced the new P910 smartphone with an additional QWERTY- keyboard, a built-in e-mail client, four times more memory compared to previous smartphones and a large screen.

In February 2005, at the 3GSM World Congress, Sony Ericsson President Miles Flint spoke about the company's plans for a new mobile device that combines all the advanced features of a digital media player and telephone. The mobile device will be released under the Walkman brand and will be able to freely work with various music formats, such as MP3 and AAC.

Walkman and Cyber-shot Brands

The basis of the product line of Sony Ericsson was made up of two lines of models produced under the Walkman brands (phones with a bias in the musical component) and Cyber-shot (the so-called “camera phones”). Both brands were borrowed from Sony, at the time of the appearance of the same name phones were already well known in the market thanks to music players and digital cameras of the Japanese concern. In 2005, Sony Ericsson introduced the K750 and W800 , the company's first product to be released under the Walkman brand. Both models had unprecedented demand in the market and became bestsellers in the first two months after appearing on the market. In October 2005, Sony Ericsson announced the first smartphone based on the UIQ 3 platform - the P990 model.

In 2006, Sony Ericsson introduced the first model of the Cyber-shot line - the K790 .

In 2007, the company introduced the 5-megapixel phone Sony Ericsson K850i , and in 2008 - the Sony Ericsson C905 with an 8-megapixel camera. At the Mobile World Congress exhibition in 2009, the company announced a 12-megapixel Symbian-based smartphone called Satio.

On January 2, 2007, the company announced the transfer of part of its production facilities to factories in India. According to partnership agreements, Sony Ericsson's plans included the production of 10 million phones by 2009 at the factories of FLextronics and Foxconn .

On February 2, 2007, Sony Ericsson acquired UIQ Technology , the software manufacturer of the software shell for devices, which is a subsidiary of Symbian Ltd. According to a statement by Sony Ericsson President Miles Flint, UIQ will now be developed as an independent company.

In 2007, the company released more than 20 models of mobile phones, and the classification of products has become more unified. Over the next two years, the company released several UIQ-based products, among which the most popular were the P990, M600, and P1.

In 2008, Sony Ericsson announced a new line of mobile phones united by the Xperia trademark. Released in the same year, the Xperia X1 model was the company's first Windows Mobile- based smartphone . According to the company, the basis of the Xperia line should be the most technologically advanced solutions. The exception was the Sony Ericsson X5 Pureness model - an image-based solution for connoisseurs of expensive products with unusual capabilities. A distinctive feature of the X5 was a transparent display, and the model was sold in a limited edition in exclusive salons. In total, the company released 3 smartphones on Windows Mobile - X1, X2 and Aspen M1. Since the end of 2009, exclusively smartphones based on the Google Android operating system began to appear under the Xperia brand.

In 2009, the company's profit from the sale of mobile phones significantly decreased, which resulted in a massive reduction in jobs, the closure of R&D centers in the UK, USA, India, Sweden and the Netherlands. In addition, UIQ development centers in London and Budapest were closed.

In September 2009, the company added new graphic elements to the company logo - a wave (Liquid Energy) was added to the static logo in the form of a white-green ball (symbolizing the merger of the letters "S" and "E"), and the logo itself acquired a new gamut of colors. In addition, the company borrowed the slogan “Make.Believe” from Sony, emphasizing the ideological affinity of the products of both companies and the simplicity of their convergence.

According to the results of 2010, the company recorded a net profit, and the release of Android-based smartphones became a priority. In 2011, the company released a number of products: Xperia arc , Xperia PLAY , Xperia Neo , Xperia ray , Xperia pro , Xperia mini , Xperia mini pro .

Ericsson Share Acquisition

At the end of October 2011, Ericsson agreed to sell its stake in Sony Ericsson to a Japanese partner for 1.05 billion euros ^[3] . Analysts believe that the company was moved to such a step by the low competitiveness of their products. It was announced that, starting in mid-2012, phones will be produced under the Sony brand ^[1] .

February 16, Sony announced the completion of the takeover of Ericsson’s stake and the change of company name to Sony Mobile Communications ^[2] .

In addition to its phones, the company until recently sold under the Sony Ericsson brand budget models of Softinnova (formerly Sagem ). These phones include Sony Ericsson F305 , Sony Ericsson S302 , SonyEricsson S312 , Sony Ericsson W302 , Sony Ericsson W395 .

Earlier, according to the ODM scheme, third-party suppliers also produced phones J100, J110, J120, J132, K200, K220, K330, R300, R306, T250, T280, T303, Z250, Z320.

In 2011, the following models were announced: - Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc - Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play - Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo - Sony Ericsson Xperia ray - Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pro - Sony Ericsson XPERIA Mini - Sony Ericsson XPERIA Mini Pro - Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc S - Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo V

Also models on the Symbian S60 platform are Satio, Vivaz, Vivaz Pro.

In 2012, the models were announced: - Sony Xperia S - Sony Xperia P - Sony Xperia U - Sony Xperia Sola - Sony Xperia Ion - Sony Xperia Go - Sony Xperia acro S - Sony Xperia miro - Sony Xperia tipo - Sony Xperia tipo dual - Sony Xperia neo L - Sony Xperia SL - Sony Xperia TX - Sony Xperia T - Sony Xperia V - Sony Xperia J

In 2013, the following models were announced: - Sony Xperia Z - Xperia ZL

Sony Mobile is actively collaborating with Vodafone and manufactures many phones for regular GSM and 3G networks. The company's research centers are located in Sweden, Japan, China, the USA and the UK. At the beginning of 2011, the company is the 6th manufacturer in the world in the number of sold mobile phones and smartphones (after Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics, RIM and Apple), the company's share in the world market is 3.6%.

Performance Indicators

The company employs more than 5 thousand employees.

The company's net profit in 2010 amounted to 90 million euros. In total, 41 million phones were sold in a year ^[4] . Revenues in 2008 amounted to 11.2 billion euros (a decrease of 13.2%), net profit - 73 million euros ^[5] . Revenues in 2007 - 12.92 billion euros (an increase of 18%, € 10.96 billion in 2006), net profit - 1.11 billion euros (an increase of 11%, 997 million euros). Operating profit in 2007 was 1.54 billion euros (an increase of 22%, 1.26 billion euros in 2006) ^[6] .

Sony Ericsson in Russia

Since October 1, 2008, the Director General of the representative office in Russia - Craig Jacobs (Craig Jacobs) (Pavel Zentrich worked for him for 1.5 years) ^[7] .

On May 1, 2005, Sony Ericsson signed a 6-year sponsorship agreement with WTA . The sponsorship agreement amounted to 88 million US dollars. The international women's tennis league has received the new name Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Sony products on a product placement basis regularly appear in films of the Sony Pictures film company, for example: Da Vinci Code , Angels and Demons , Bounty Hunter , Casino Royale , Quantum of Solace , Salt , Tourist ", A series of films" Resident Evil " , a series of films" Spider-Man " ," Social Network "," 2012 "," Friendship Sex "," Do not Mess with Zohan "," My Boyfriend from the Zoo "," Macho and Nerd " , " Skyfall Coordinates " and many others.

• Company official website