Sony Ericsson to become just Sony

Set for exciting new life as a singleton after break up of ten year old marriage.

A story in the Times of India quotes Kristian Tear, executive VP & head of sales & marketing at Sony Ericsson, who says the firm will lose the Sony Ericsson brand by mid next year, and that the new entity will focus on smartphones only.

All pretty unsurprising given that Sony has already launched a well-reviewed tablet range and has strong device ranges in other sectors, such as bravia TVs and PlayStation.

Sony Ericsson was a big success in the mid-nineties, when its Walkman and Cyber-shot ranges captured the public's imagination and catapulted the firm to a top five market share in Europe.

But it got caught out by the move to smartphones, rushing out Microsoft OS and Symbian devices before it caught up with the trend to go Android. It now has a two per cent global market share – and most of that probably comes from one device, the Xperia.

Tear said: "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."