Sony to drop Ericsson in brand name next year

Sony spoke about its future plans to the Times of India recently and confirmed that it will drop the Ericsson brand name next year and all phones produced post mid 2012 will be simply branded ‘Sony’. The company also plans to exit the feature phone market and concentrate on building bigger and better smartphones.

Who better to partner with, then, than Google’s Android? Sony will continue to make Android smartphones in the future, with company leaders citing that the OS provided a better smartphone platform than Microsoft’s Windows Mobile.

Now that Sony is no longer in a joint venture with Ericsson, it is looking forward to greater resources at its disposal, specially centered on its marketing and advertising strategies. The consumer market can expect to see a blitzkrieg of publicity and rebranding efforts from the company next year.

Said Kristian Tear, Executive VP and head of sales and marketing, Sony Ericsson, “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.” Since Sony Corp. is the world’s biggest entertainment company, Sony Ericsson is hoping to gain from its assets on the ‘content, technology and brand’ side according to Tear. 

Sony’s takeover of Ericsson’s share is still waiting a few regulatory approvals which are likely to fall into place by next year. Sony loyalists will have a lot to look forward to from the manufacturer, then. From Xperia smartphones to Sony Walkmans and PlayStation devices, Sony is ready to take a big chunk of the consumer market away from competitors in the coming years.