Sony Ericsson -> Sony

[Morrigan]

Will Sony Ericsson become Sony? Why did they keep the name anyway? To keep their consumer-base who are used to the name? But wouldn't it make sense to eventually cut out the Ericsson?

[Andy]

No. Why should they? In Europe (the worlds biggest market for GSM phones) Ericsson has a lot more cachet than sony wrt mobile phones

[DaninChina]

Sony-Ericsson is a joint venture between the two companies, and as such uses both of their names. Even though Ericsson doesn't seem to be making many handsets on their own, they are still active in creating network technology.

The headquarters for this company is in London.

Sony used to make its own handsets prior to making Sony-Ericsson, but I think they found it difficult to really penetrate the market well.

Sony and Ericsson are both benefitting from the merger, I think...and at least the company is starting to make money on its own now...

[crystalcube]

Sony-ericsson is already kinda "sony only"
sometime ago there was an interview from Nobuyuki Idei, Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation, thats what he said


Idei: We have a joint venture with Ericsson, which for them is clearly kind of an exit strategy. They don't care about the mobile phone business, they care about the base-station business, which is 90 percent, now 100 percent of their business. Sony made the joint venture with Ericsson because we want to be covered by their IP patent umbrella, otherwise we have to pay nearly 15 percent to the GSM license holder. I wouldn't have been able to stand that.

[DaninChina]

Thanks for that information. Interesting...

Happy new year everyone, btw!

[bart]

SE is idd working more like sony wants it, tobad cause ericsson was really on track, tobad all those people thought, and stil think nokia is the best, why are people so stupid, and not only stupid in choosing a mobile phone brand

[Morrigan]

Yeah I just converted over from Nokia - the last Ericsson I had was a T10. I couldn't believe it when I saw the T610 - I realised Sony Ericsson had really done some work. Plus, the handset has features beyond that of any Nokia - the Accept Calls list is handy when you're not in the mood to talk to a particular person, or I can set it when I go to bed to only accept calls from relatives / close friends (in case of emergency?).
Camera is better - on NYE someone did something funny and two of us went to take a photo - I snapped it and saved it before the Nokia 7250 user even turned his camera on... And even then mine was clear and his was crappy and small.
Polyphonic tones are better - I can't believe Nokia still have 4-chord polyphony! As someone who studies music, I can hear the difference. For example, 4-chord would be like having 4 musicians playing at once. But with SE you can have 32!
And why are Nokia still using 4,096 colour screen with that crappy litttle screen?!

Enough of my ranting - I personally believe SE should become Sony, I'm a Sony lover myself.

[cdover]

wah, i really like the accept call thing, i didnt know SE had that. very useful for those pesky parents :D mm, well yea, but not all nokia phones have 4-chord poly ringtones. series 60 phones have 16, then again thats only half of what SE can do.
yea, to add on what morrigan said, why is nokia still have those small screens?? 4,096 colours are still good tho, but only on big screens like the 7/3650. if nokia made their screens bigger then they would have more customers. i hate all those nokia phones with 128x128 screens.

[Bluey]

Not sure I beleive some of the things I'm reading here... you may want to believe that Sony-Ericsson is 100% Sony, but in fact everything they've released so far has been almost entirely Ericsson based. The T610 and others are all evolutions of the original Ericsson T68, the P800 was an Ericsson project based on Symbian/Epoc technology which Ericsson (not Palm-favouring Sony) championed... the batteries, the accessories, all the key technology - not to mention Bluetooth of course - it's all Ericsson. All Sony have added is some questionable design, marketing, and the rather regrettable switch to memory stick (which delayed the P800 no end).

Long may the Ericsson name live on..

[cdover]

sony is still better generally. ericsson pretty much only makes phones, sony makes everything, from aircons to mp3 players

[Bluey]

Depends on your definition of "better" really. Sony make more things, that's true, but we're only talking about phones here. If Ericsson made TV's, whose to say they wouldn't be "better" than Sony's? It's like saying Sony are rubbish because their cars are no good..

Sony of course did make their own phones, and immediately dropped all of their old designs and tech as soon as they went into the joint venture with Ericsson. What they (as in Sony Ericsson) have been making since are, essentially, newer and better Ericsson phones taken straight from the Ericsson roadmap.

[crystalcube]

Originally posted by Bluey
What they (as in Sony Ericsson) have been making since are, essentially, newer and better Ericsson phones taken straight from the Ericsson roadmap.

I dont think that is the case , after the new company was formed t68m transformed to t68i and from there on a new roadmap emerged. I am not aware of any old roadmap of Ericsson but I am quite sure it no longer exists. The new phones have distinct sony feel to them. I dont think Ericsson would have considered a memory stick for their smartphones but they are there in SE ones.

[Bluey]

Originally posted by crystalcube
I dont think that is the case , after the new company was formed t68m transformed to t68i and from there on a new roadmap emerged. I am not aware of any old roadmap of Ericsson but I am quite sure it no longer exists. The new phones have distinct sony feel to them. I dont think Ericsson would have considered a memory stick for their smartphones but they are there in SE ones.

I didn't mean the roadmap thing literally, it was just a turn of phrase. Having said that, the T68i is not drastically different to the T68m, and the new firmware (which was also distributed to existing "m" owners) only brings the very same features - such as MMS - which were promised with the original Ericsson phone. That "transformation" was planned from the start - although obviously SE took advantage of it to brand their first "new" phone.

I don't agree that the new phones have a "distinct Sony feel" at all - they feel, and act, like the Ericsson phones they are directly descended from. There is literally nothing of the old Sony range of phones in them - they don't even match the styling.

You're right about the memory stick - Ericsson were originally going to use one of the more standard formats. The last minute change to Memory Stick, forced on them by Sony, was the main reason behind the delays which dogged the P800's release. I think - if we're honest - most people wish they had stuck with the original plan.

[omie]

Hi there,

Bluey is right in stating the S-E...........more Ericsson. one obvious example is the BLUETOOTH.
I am a Sony fiend.........nearly every gadget i own....TVs, MP3, DVD, VCR, CD Player, Digital Still/Video camera, PDA, VAIO Laptop.....even have a few S-E phones. But for me, Nokia phones are supreme. I use the Nok 6600 at the moment and it is just fantastic and much easier to use than the P 900 which I also have and used for about 2 weeks (my back up phone now).
I hope to join the S-E band wagon when the Z1010 is released...........have been playing around with the pre -release model...pretty impressive.
But I am quite sure the NOKIA releases this year will be very good and stunning.....lots of rumours on the grapevine.
Cheersx

[Morrigan]

Check it out - this is basically it -

http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/communications/0,39001141,38008998,00.htm

I don't think SE is going anywhere, I think they may just stay as Sony Ericsson. Which is good! They make superior handsets!

[cdover]

Originally posted by Bluey
Depends on your definition of "better" really. Sony make more things, that's true, but we're only talking about phones here. If Ericsson made TV's, whose to say they wouldn't be "better" than Sony's? It's like saying Sony are rubbish because their cars are no good..

Sony of course did make their own phones, and immediately dropped all of their old designs and tech as soon as they went into the joint venture with Ericsson. What they (as in Sony Ericsson) have been making since are, essentially, newer and better Ericsson phones taken straight from the Ericsson roadmap.

mm, i guess ur right, still. if i went to a shop and saw a sony TV then an Ericsson TV, id get the sony. sony has more experienced, which i guess, does not exntirely mean theyre better. i wasnt correct in my comment

[DaninChina]

Sony's influence on SE -

Here's a thought:

I recall that nearly all of the old "Sony only" phones featured a jog-dial...the p800 and p900 have a jog dial; I guess that shows some Sony influence on Ericcson design?

Not to mention most Sony PDA's all have a jog dial as well...

[Esquire]

Does it really matter if Sony Ericsson is more Sony than Ericsson or the other way round? It's still Sony Ericsson.

I was quite sceptical with the brand at first, having owned a Nokia since N2, but after playing with my friend's T610, I am now a convert! Not to mention SE's phones look so much prettier these day. There are still a couple of things I prefer from a Nokia (comparing to my ex-6100), but how I love my new Sony Ericsson!

By the way, the T630 battery is labelled "Made in Korea", but not all say "Finished in Sweden" :p (luckily mine does say that)

[Dynamoo]

With the quality of phones that are being produced, the brandname "Sony Ericsson" is actually looking pretty good. Ericsson used to the the #2 brand in Europe after Nokia, so it still has a certain cachet.

You can see the family resemblance to the old candybar Ericssons in the T-series phones. The Z-series clamshells are very similar in design terms to the old Sony ones. There's not a huge amound of consistency in design, but they now often share the same components, e.g. the screen in the Z600 and T630.

They have definitely got Nokia in their sites with these new handsets. Take a look at the P900, SE's *second* generation of Smartphone and so far Nokia have nothing.. all they've done is announce the 7700 which will probably be ages yet (in typical Nokia fashion - it took 9 months for the N-Gage to come out after it had been announced).

Plus SE have a much easier to understand range. Going forward they'll have (in Europe) about 1 Smartphone (P800/P900), 2 candybars (T230 and T610/T630), 2 clamshells (Z200, Z600) and one 3G phone (Z1010)...

..now look at the Nokia range. I see about 17 candybar phones, one 3G phone (the 7600, whatever happened to the 6650?), one clamshell (the very strange 7200), one Smartphone (the 7700) and then the oddities like the N-Gage and 3300. Confusing stuff.

Also, they have a clearer product range than rivals Samsung with about 7 clamshells (mostly identical looking silver ones) and one fairly ugly candybar.

(OK I know there are different product ranges in different countries, that's the range in the UK at the moment).

Umm.. so in my book, a good brand with some nice products. Even if Sony do end up running the show they might want to keep the Ericsson title.