For years the
Sony Ericcson has been one of the industry's leading mobile devices. From the early days in the early 2000s until present day, the Ericcson line of phones has always been a market leader. The sophistication of the Ericsson phone line is of upper class, commonly compared to only the plushest of
leather sofas.
Beginning in the early 90s, Ericcson alone had always been a major front runner in mobile phones. Running second only to
Nokia they were a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately in March 2000, a Philips Company manufacturing plant that Ericcson single handedly bought their circuit boards and micro chips from caught fire and put a serious strain on the company. Ericcson was already behind in manufacturing and without a supplier of circuit boards, they were unable to make new phones.
The Sony/Ericsson Merger
In August of 2001 Ericcson struck a deal to begin merger with
Sony to become one entity known as Sony Ericcson. After hard and strategically bound thinking the company found its niche; leading the development of phones that could utilize digital photography as well as downloading and uploading multimedia files such as image, video and sound files to other users.
For years the company continued to invest most of their time in producing high quality phones that specialized in media management. On March 1st, 2005 Sony introduced the K750i phone. This new phone had something that many others did not have at the time, a phone with a two megapixel camera. Not only did they produce an outstanding camera phone, which was the hip term for these elite devices at the time, but they also produced the Walkman model phone which could support playback of up to thirty hours of digital music.
Introduction of the World's First High Megapixel Camera Phones
As mobile phones began to become more and more popular the stress on the company rose to produce a higher quality and more sought after device. During 2008 Sony unveiled planet Earth's first eight megapixel camera. This was truly revolutionary at the time and gained great support from the masses. Ericsson continued to lead the market by producing high quality camera phones that consumers itched for. They truly had phone a niche in the market that other competitors had failed to cultivate.
During the
Mobile World Congress of 2009 Sony Ericsson again produced a marvel of an annoucement by releasing yet another industry leading camera phone named the Saio. This time it was for an astonishing 12 megapixels that was and still is simply mind blowing as far as capabilities of a cellular device go. Keep in mind that at these times their were not many niches in the mobile device industry that are available now. Cameras were a huge selling point of phones and Sony Ericsson was able to consistently produce phones that utilized extremely high quality cameras at prices that were extremely competitive to their competitors who used of lesser quality cameras.
Integration into a Sony Owned Company
Looking to expand market share across the world Sony looked to one of the world's most booming populations, India. During 2007 India was the fastest growing mobile market on the planet with a total of 105 million subscribers to GSM mobile phones that had yet to be tapped by any large competitor. The company still remains extremely popular in the country and neighboring areas. These areas still remain as part of their sales force due to the simple fact that competitors have been able to supply a greater quality product for a comparable price.
On October 27, 2011, Sony made a statement declaring the company would take in the remainder of Ericsson's stake in the company for $1.47 billion. This would put one sole company in stake of the one of the most legendary phone providers to hit the markets as we know it. They have moved most of the company to one local location in Atlanta, Georgia in hopes of consolodating the division as a whole and renovating their new ideas in the form of top notch mobile devices. Sony is still to this day known for producing high quality phones at affordable pricing and will continue to be a key player in the times to come.
