Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson

Sony Mobile Communications AB (formerly Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB) is a multinational mobile phone manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and Lund, Sweden, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was founded on October 1, 2001 as a joint venture between Sony and the Swedish telecommunications equipment company

Ericsson, under the name Sony Ericsson. Sony acquired Ericsson's share in the venture on February 16, 2012.

Sony Ericsson's strategy was to release new models capable of digital photography as well as other multimedia capabilities such as downloading and viewing video clips and personal information management capabilities. In 2005 Sony Ericsson introduced the K750i with a 2 megapixel camera, as well as its platform mate, the W800i, the first of the Walkman phones capable of 30 hours of music playback, and two low-end phones. In 2007 the company's first 5-Megapixel camera phone, the Sony Ericsson K850i, was announced followed in 2008 by the Sony Ericsson C905, the world's first 8-Megapixel phone.[citation needed] At Mobile World Congress 2009, Sony Ericsson unveiled the first 12-Megapixel phone, named Satio. Sony Ericsson struggled following the launch of Apple's iPhone in the third quarter of 2007. The eclipse of the Symbian operating system, initially by Apple's iPhone, and then by Google's Android, has affected Sony Ericsson's position in the market. The first Sony-only mobile was the Sony Xperia S along with the Sony Xperia U and Sony Xperia P at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. Sony Mobile Communications decided to phase out all the feature (non-smart) phones by September 2012 and focus completely on the smartphones segment. the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show the Sony Xperia Z and Sony Xperia ZL were announced, followed by the Sony Xperia Z1, unveiled during a press conference in IFA 2013 and the Sony Xperia Z2 during the 2014 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Sony Mobile Communications has research and development facilities in Tokyo, Japan; Chennai, India; Lund, Sweden; Beijing, China and Silicon Valley, United States. Sony Mobile was the fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer by market share in the fourth quarter of 2012 with 9.8 million units shipped.