SONY ERICSSON

Sony Ericsson

Is a joint venture established on October 1, 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 and the United Kingdom. By 2008, it was the third-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world after Nokia and Samsung. The sales of products largely increased due to the launch of the adaptation of Sony's popular Walkman and Cyber-shot series.

Background of the Joint Venture

Sony was a marginal player in the worldwide cell phone market with a share of less than 1 percent in 2000. It was also struggling in this area with losses but wanted to focus more in this area. In April 2001, Sony confirmed that it was in talks with Ericsson for a possible collaboration in the handset business. This was soon after Toshiba and Siemens had announced plans in November 2000 to work together on handsets for 3G mobile networks, which was cancelled in 2001.

By August 2001, the two companies had finalized the terms of the merger announced in April. The company was to have an initial workforce of 3,500 employees.

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
* 2005: 50 million units
* 2006: 74.8 million units
* 2007: 103.4 million units
* 2008: 96.6 million units

Also, Sony Ericsson sold 60 million music enabled phones in 2006, including 17 million Walkman devices, underlining how its products are more popular than Apple's iPod. Apple sold 46 million 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 2008, Sony Ericsson became for the first time the third largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world after Nokia and Samsung, despite failing to improve significantly its market share (8.05% globally), and it is followed very closely by Motorola (7.98%) and LG (7.80%).

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