Sony Ericsson Phones To Be Rebranded As Sony

Future Sony Ericsson phones will no longer bear the Ericsson name as Sony rebrands its mobile phones.

The Sony Ericsson brand is being phased out following Sony’s acquisition of Ericsson’s share in the joint-venture and the change is expected to happen next year, once the buyout is approved.

Revival of Fortunes

“A lot of planning goes into getting the branding right but we will be done by middle of next year,” Kristian Tear, executive vice president and head of sales and marketing at Sony Ericsson told the Times of India.

“It will also mean that the marketing and advertising investments will go up. We haven’t been as fierce as we were a few years back but we will step it up, refocus and invest more in brand-building in select markets and India is one of those markets.”

Sony hopes that by taking full control of Sony Ericsson, it can use its resources to help expand its market share and that the rebrand will go some way to help revive the fortunes of its smartphone division. The company is also optimistic that it can use audio and video content from its entertainment arm to help boost the appeal of its devices.

“Sony is the world’s biggest entertainment company. We were earlier a 50-50 JV, but now that we are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corp. We expect to gain from its assets on the content, technology and brand side,” said Tear.

In October, Sony announced plans to acquire Ericsson’s 50 percent stake in the joint venture for £932m. Under the arrangement, Sony would take five selected Ericsson patents related to handsets and allow Ericsson to focus on the sales of its wireless transmission equipment and services.

Sony Ericsson abandoned Symbian OS in September 2010 in favour of producing phones running Google’s Android mobile operating system. However despite attempts to refresh its product line with the Xperia range of phones, Sony Ericsson phones account for just 8.5 percent of total Android sales.