Sony and Ericsson part ways in mobile communications industry: Sony Ericsson acquired by Sony

Sony Ericsson, the strategic alliance between Sony Corporation and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, has come to its fatal end. Finally, after announcing in October, 2011 that Sony will buyout Ericsson’s shares in the joint venture, the deal has finally been penned down with mutual consent from both parties.

Sony purchased Ericsson’s 50 percent stake in the joint venture for €1.05 billion, turning it into a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony. And although the deal was supposed to finalize in January, it took a bit longer than that but the process is finally complete.

Starting February 19, Sony Ericsson will be officially known as Sony Mobile Communications. Every new phone launched from the company will bear only Sony’s name, and we have seen a couple of them already. However, the existing range of devices out in the market will continue to bear the Sony Ericsson name.

In Consumer Electronics Show 2012, Sony showcased a slew of its electronic products and accompanying them were two smartphones that boast Google’s mobile operating system, Android. Both Xperia S and Xperia Ion bear the name Sony on the top edge, clearly showing that the separation has taken place.

Both companies joined hands in 2001 and in a short period of time became one of the best tech giants in the world. Sony Ericsson released a number of blockbusters in the last one decade like K700i, which sported a 2 mega-pixel camera, top notch at the time.

In addition, the company was the pioneer of smartphone category. As iMate and Blackberry showered the market with their smartphones bearing Windows Mobile and Blackberry OS, respectively, SE introduced P-series touch-sensitive phones that had the largest market cap in its time.

However, the technology evolved and Apple entered the scene with its revolutionary smartphone with first-of-its-kind capacitive touch screen phone that boasted Mac-based Unix OS that changed the entire picture of the industry.

SE made the mistake of delayed entry into the growing market and that ended the once-successful marriage into a permanent separation.

However, Sony has open-mindedly accepted the fact the touch-screen phones are the future and mobile computing has taken the place of mobile communication.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Feb 21 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.