Sony Ericsson - Eating into Competitor's Territory

by Camden Glen

Nokia's market leadership is under serious threat from the winning combination of the Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony and world leading telecom supplier Ericsson. This 50:50 joint venture has been launching models after models, and all of them have been more or less successful.

Things were not the same at the time when Sony Ericsson came into existence in October 2001. Ericsson though had previous experience in mobile phone manufacturing had been largely unsuccessful in designing a true best seller. The earliest Sony Ericsson mobile phones earned a dubious distinction for being fiddly and at times, unreliable. Enormous brand loyalty enjoyed by Nokia didn't helped their cause either.

But as the consumers got more and more comfortable with the basic usage of the mobile phone, invariably, the demand for 'more' increased. It was then, when Sony's years of experience and technical know how of LCD screens, cameras and more popularly music changed the dynamics of the unipolar mobile market.

First Sony Ericsson mobile phone that made some real impact and made everyone stand up and take notice is the Sony Ericsson T610i. During its launched, it was one of the most advanced yet very competitively priced. Its petite size during the 'brick sized' camera phone era was received with much enthusiasm across all sections of the market. That was only the beginning.

The masterstroke from Sony Ericsson came in the form of W800i - a great marketing strategy to incorporate the popular brand 'Walkman' with its music centric phone - a Walkman phone. Overnight, popularity of Sony Ericsson's phone rose many folds. Following its success, a series of Walkman phones were released to fill up every price segment to cash in. It can be safely stated that the Xpress Music line up from Nokia is but a formal strike back to the astounding success of the Walkman phones. Similarly, Sony Ericsson's camera centric K series now marketed with a reputed digital camera brand - Cyber Shot.

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