Sony has announced that it will be dropping the Ericsson brand from smartphone devices in mid 2012. Sony acquired Ericsson’s 50% stake in the company’s joint venture for €1.05 billion in October.
A senior Sony executive revealed that the Sony Ericsson brand would be phased out as the company focusses on becoming a complete smartphone business that will sell its new smartphones under the Sony label. The move aims to invigorate Sony‘s smartphone sales, which slowly began to pick up when Sony Ericsson decided to soley develop smarthphones powered by Google’s Android operating system.
With this decision, Sony Ericsson will invest significant amounts into its marketing and advertising channels for the new Sony smartphone brand. Kristian Tear, executive VP and head of sales and marketing at Sony Ericsson commented that “A lot of planning goes into getting the branding right but we will be done by middle of next year. 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.”
Although Sony is the world’s leading entertainment company, it holds only 2% of the global smartphone market and expects its mobile presence to increase with its assets on the content, technology and brand side along with its planned marketing and advertising boost.
Sony‘s acquisition still requires approval, so the changes aren‘t expected to be implemented until next year.
source: The Next Web
