Sony Mobile India leading the mid-segment; 50% market share

For Sony, in India,the first and faintest glimmers of a turnaround in the mobile space have begun to appear. Over the last six months, in which it had five launches, Sony Mobile claims things are changing for the better. According to industry folk in the know, in the January to April 2012 period, it led certain segments within the Android based smartphone universe with a share of 50 per cent albeit in a narrow price bracket of Rs 15,000-20,000.

P Balaji, MD, Sony Mobile, is pleased with the results but knows there is still a long way to go. "When we started the journey a year back, there were a number of areas to be fixed — distribution,customer pull, operator engagement, end-to-end customer management, a strongleadership and most important the product," he says.

Sony hired new heads for sales, operator alliances and product, content and services. Retailers were won back by providing trained staff for product demonstrations, setting up kiosks and even giving the stores live mobile phones. "It was important that distributors saw us as a dependable company," says Balaji. Sony mobile tied up with operators like Airtel, Aircel, Tata Docomo and Reliance to offer exclusive data plans for corporate customers. Offers comprised money-backpacks, free mobile TV and access to Sony's cloud service called 'Box', with 50GB of free file sharing and storage

Via: ET

Sony Ericsson records Q3 profit on product launches

The strong performance of Sony Ericsson's smartphones has led them to a third consecutive quarter of profits. Income was up from the previous quarter and restructuring charges were significantly lower too.

Here are the numbers: Sony Ericsson shipped 10.4 million units (down from 11 million the previous quarter) and the sales totaled 1,603 million euro (1,757 million euro for Q2). Despite that, the gross margin went up 2% quarter-on-quarter and almost doubled compared to last year's third quarter.

Smartphones, especially the XPERIA lineup, has been the primary focus for Sony Ericsson and it's paying off - smartphones now account for over 50% of total sales. Average selling price fell a little since the last quarter and is now at 154 euro (down from 160 euro).

The end result of all these numbers is a net income of 49 million euro - a huge improvement over the 12 million for the previous quarter. And last year's third quarter marked a loss of 164 million euro, so Sony Ericsson is clearly on an upwards trajectory.

Sony Ericsson estimates that they have a 4% market share (in number of units) - basically they've been keeping the same level since the beginning of 2010.

Official Press release

Sony Ericsson wants to be #1 in Android

Currently sitting with a 17% share of the global Android market, Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg said on Wednesday that the joint venture is aiming to be the market share leader. The executive didn't give a market share target or a time frame relating to this quest, but the current leader has a 23% piece of the pie.

For Sony Ericsson to achieve this goal, the company will have to step things up in terms of manufacturing. Currently, all of the joint venture's Android phones are powered by the 1.6 build of the operating system. Most top-end phones using Google's open source OS are loaded with Android 2.1 or 2.2. S

One way that Sony Ericsson could shake things up would be to offer an Android phone with capabilities to link with the Sony PlayStation gaming platform. Recent speculation centered around such a device powered by Android 3.0, that if produced, could help Sony Ericsson take a huge slice of market share away from the other Android phone manufacturers.

The road to the top includes a faster update schedule, so you might want to work on speeding up the Timescape port process to newer versions of Android.That rumored Android 3.0 gaming device wouldn’t hurt either.

Xperia X10 becomes DoCoMo's best selling smartphone

An analyst note from Barclay’s justified their upgrade of Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo’s stock by impressive performance of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

DoCoMo’s new smart phone, Sony Ericsson Xperia, has sold about 120,000 units within its first three weeks on sale; Tsusaka’s data shows that the initial 100,000 unit shipment to distributors sold out in 10 says, but another 50,000 units delivered in mid-April, and a third set of 30,000 units is apparently scheduled for late April.
Stores which open on weekdays are mostly sold out. Sales of over 100,000 units make a positive contribution to the company’s net increase in subscribers, so it looks very likely NTT DoCoMo will again have a top share of net add in April.

Xperia sales versus DoCoMo’s previous smart phone:
Xperia 120,000 in 20 days
HTC Android 80,000 in 10 months
Blackberry Bold 60,000 in 14 months
Toshiba Windows Mobile 60,000 in 10 months”

292% growth in SE smartphone sales

Canalys reports in its latest smart phone market report that Sony Ericsson smartphone sales gre by 292% year-on-year growth in its smartphone sales. Incredible isn't it?

Sony Ericsson successfully delivered its first Android-based devices at the end of the quarter, but its boost in volumes came instead from its Symbian platform products, the Vivaz and the Satio, which performed well in APAC and EMEA.

Via: se-blog

Sony Ericsson returns to profit in Q1

Sony Ericsson announced a surprise return to profit on Friday, after cost cutting and the launch of new, touch-screen mobile phones helped the company improve performance in the first quarter.

The company reported a net profit for the three months to March 31 of €21 million ($28.4 million), compared with a €293 million net loss a year earlier and analysts' expectations for a €128 million loss. Sony Ericsson, which has faced declining sales and market share due in part to a limited offering of high-end devices, hasn't made a net profit since the second quarter 2008.

Consumers have positively received its newly launched high-end phones, Xperia X10 and Vivaz, which helped boost the company's average selling price in the quarter.
The company shipped 10.5 million phones at an average selling price of €134 in the first quarter, down from 14.5 million devices at an average selling price of €120 a year earlier. Net sales fell to €1.41 billion from €1.74 billion, against expectations for sales of EUR1.63 billion.

Sony Ericsson's estimated share of the global handset market fell from 5% in the previous quarter to around 4%.

The company also saw a small improvement in sales in North America in the first quarter, after several quarters of dramatic declines. The US is Sony Ericsson’s weakest market and Mr Nordberg has made a turnround in America one of the company’s highest priorities.

Official Press Release

XPERIA X10 now available in India

Sony Ericson launched a new portfolio of high-end mobile handsets in India, and aims to garner a considerable market share in the smartphone segment. The key device among the five handsets launched is the XPERIA X10.  Other handsets include the Vivaz, Vivaz Pro, Xperia X10 mini, Xperia X10 mini Pro.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is powered by the Android 1.6 OS and it runs on 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. It comes with 8 megapixel camera, 4 inch capacitive touchscreen display, Bluetooth, 1GB internal memory, 16GB expandable memory, Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity, A-GPS, 3.5 mm audio jack, 1500 mAh battery and so on. This handset comes with a price tag of Rs. 35,795.

The Vivaz is already available for a price of Rs 23400.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini is powered by the Android 1.6 OS and it runs on a 600MHz Qualcomm processor. It comes with a 5 megapixel camera, 2.55 inch capacitive touchscreen display, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity, A-GPS, 128 MB internal memory, 16GB expandable memory, 3.5 mm audio jack, Stereo FM radio with RDS and so on. This handset will be available in India within 3 months. It comes with a price tag of Rs.25,695.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro is powered by the Android 1.6 OS and it runs on a 600MHz Qualcomm processor. It comes with a slide out QWERTY keyboard, 5 megapixel camera, 2.55 inch capacitive touchscreen display, 3G connectivity, A-GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 128 MB internal memory, 16GB expandable memory, 3.5 mm audio jack, Stereo FM radio with RDS and much more. This handset will be available in India within 6 months. It comes with a price tag of Rs.25,695.

Besides, the handset maker has roped in actor Kareena Kapoor as the brand ambassador for the company.

XPERIA X10 now available in India.

“The new portfolio will take communication entertainment to the next level. Beside the five devices that we have launched today, we will launch devices in the low-end sub-Rs 5,000 handsets as well,” Sony Ericsson Corporate Vice- President and Head of Asia Pacific region Hirokazu Ishizuka said.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Hirokazu Ishizuka, Corporate Vice President & Head of Asia Pacific region said, “Being one of the most widely-followed youth-icons, Kareena matches the level of energy, vibrancy, passion and fun associated with Sony Ericsson, and thereby elevates the aspiration value of the brand. We are also extremely excited about re-energizing the digital space with Kareena, as we debut her social networking that will allow her to engage with the rapidly growing digitally-evolved fan-base over various social networking platforms.”

Kareena Kapoor said, “I am very happy to be associated with Sony Ericsson. I believe that Sony Ericsson truly represents the fusion of communication and entertainment in mobile device. I love my new feature rich Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 that allows me to easily keep in touch with my family and friends, while keeping myself entertained on the go.”



With the launch, Sony Ericsson plans to corner a considerable market share in the high-end mobile market segment which is currently dominated by Nokia, Blackberry and Apple, he added.

Besides, on the content side, Sony Ericsson has partnered with regional and local content and application providers such as MTV India, UTV, Shemaroo, Electronics Art, Indiagames and Disney among others to deliver entertainment content.

With the new brand ambassador, Sony Ericsson will roll out its marketing campaign, which will be focussed on digital and social networks.

“The proliferation of social and digital media is changing the consumer experience with mobile phones. Social media will play an important role in how we engage with our consumers here in India.”

“We recognise the critical need to maintain consumer touch points and will leverage all digital and social media platforms to engage with consumers,” he added.

Sony Ericsson Touchscreen Smartphone coming in H2

Now that the euphoria about the 'Fab 5' ie..the X10, Vivaz, Vivaz Pro, X10 mini, X10 mini Pro, is over, it was about time we got some info about the next batch of handsets right? ;)

Well, in a news article regarding Sony Ericsson's Taiwan partners, it's been revealed that Sony Ericsson is expected to release orders for two ODM handsets to Arima Communications in 2010, with shipments of one Walkman handset to begin at the end of the second quarter and the other, a touch-enabled model, in the second half of the year.

The article further goes on to say that orders for feature phones released by Sony Ericsson to Taiwan production partners will be reduced significantly in 2010 as the handset vendor is switching its focus on smartphones.

While the news that Walkman is back in the picture isn't new, most of us will be hoping that the touch enabled device is the rumored Playstation Phone.

I'll keep you posted as and when further details are out. For the time being, you can hit the link below to read the entire article.

Via: Digitimes

Note: The device in the image above is a concept phone first seen in Sony Ericsson's JavaOne Video . 

Sony Ericsson PlayStation smartphone in 2010?

I know for a fact that you're already jumping up and down after reading the title of this post but kindly hear me out first, will you? 

Well, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal,Sony is developing two handhelds that will directly target Apple. The leader would be a smartphone built in tandem with Sony Ericsson that could run PlayStation games, presumably PSP games as hinted by Sony last month; it would compete against the game-friendly iPhone.

The new smartphone will be able to download and play PlayStation games as well as connect to the Sony Online Service ( which is going to go online this month) to access a variety of online media.

Reflecting the amount of devotion to the project, Sony is reportedly contributing significantly more effort to the PlayStation phone than it does for most Sony Ericsson projects. In either case, the sources reiterate Sony's recently publicized admission that the PSP Go has struggled and that any future handheld devices would take a more considerate approach to devices with download-only content.

The second device would be a crossover between the PSP, an e-book reader and a netbook and would be aimed at multi-role devices like the iPad, albeit not necessarily a tablet.

Both the devices would tie into the online media service due to go live this month but themselves wouldn't be ready until sometime later in 2010. The Sony Online Service is slated to build upon the company's existing PlayStation network. In addition to providing music, movies, and software for downloading, it is expected to allow connection to a variety of Sony devices, including Bravia televisions, mobile devices like the Sony Ericsson smart phones, and Sony game devices.

If you remember, Sony Ericsson had hinted at a possibility of producing a PSP phone, according to an interview with president Bert Nordberg in tone of the issues of the Mobile World Congress Show Daily.

"We missed the window for high-end and touchscreen devices big time," Nordberg admitted. "Part of the recovery will be much better design and closer work with our partner Sony... In the past there was no tie-up between us, the PSP platform and Sony, but you can expect to hear much more about that."

He also suggested Sony Ericsson will also engage the home environment with upcoming products. "The TV, PC, stereo, and mobile will have a common communications interface -- DLNA," he said.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer had already stated at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that Sony Ericsson phones will connect to the Sony Online Service in the future.

So there you have it folks. Bottomline - Sony is working with Sony Ericsson to develop the new smartphone, with Sony taking a more active role in its development than in the past and we just might see the device before the end of 2010.

Hope this made your day, it certainly made mine! 

Eventually there'll be more info on this, and you know where you'll read it first . You can follow us on facebook and twitter too.

Cheers!

Note: The device in the image above is a concept phone first seen in Sony Ericsson's JavaOne Video .

Sony Ericsson posts narrower Q4 loss

Sony Ericsson warned on Friday a recovery in the cellphone market could be slower than many expected as it reported its seventh straight quarterly loss.

The company shipped 14.6 million units in the fourth quarter ,which is a sequential increase of three percent and a year-on-year decrease of 40 percent. This increase was largely driven by market seasonality and successful sales of Satio and Aino phones.

The year-over-year decrease in both units and sales was the result of a downturn in the global handset market and a faster than anticipated shift to touch screen phones in the mid-priced sector of the market. With a more favorable product mix, the average selling price for the quarter rose sequentially by 5 percent to $170.

Gross margin percentage improved sequentially and year-on-year mainly driven by the successful sales of new, higher-margin phones as well as the positive impact of cost reduction activities.

With a loss of $56 million, the quarter was actually an improvement over the previous quarter of a loss of $280 million. The loss was the result of the improved gross margin and the benefits of reduced operating expenses. For the year, the company produced a loss of $1.24 billion compared with an income of $184 million in 2008.

During 2009, Sony Ericsson found additional external funding of $643 million to strengthen the balance sheet. The company estimates the global handsets market in units for the fourth quarter 2009 was flat year-on-year and that its market share was 5 percent in the fourth quarter.

Sony Ericsson forecasts a slight growth in units in the global handset market in 2010.

Sony Ericsson chief Nordberg said the company's turnaround plan, focused on cost cutting and new phones with advanced mobile Internet and networking functions, was gaining traction.

Sales of Sony Ericsson's new Aino and Satio phones -- along with cost cuts -- gave a big boost to the firm's gross margin.

"On the positive side we see that the new phones ... are well received by customers and they are really selling more high-end phones, and that is raising the average sales price quite a bit," Sydbank analyst Morten Imsgard said, adding the overall results are better than expected once restructuring charges are taken out.

The full benefit of the cost cuts are expected to come through in the second-half of the year, but management would not say when the firm would move back into the black.
With the forecasts being of a slight growth in units shipped in the global handset market in the upcoming year, it might just be good enough ground for the X10, X2 and the Vivaz to sell well enough to save the company.
Lets hope, for the sake of competition that SE gets back into black figures real soon.

Official Press Release

SE to Produce 100,000 units of the X10

Eldar Murtazin of Mobile-Review has, in his Twitter Feed, revealed that Sony Ericsson will produce 100,000 X10 units for the global market. Sony Ericsson seems to be pretty upbeat about its first Android offering and this bit of news confirms it.

Now all we can I hope is that Sony Ericsson launches it sometime in February or else potential customers might be tempted by other offerings.

If you're one of those who missed out on what's the latest on the Android front, Sony Ericsson has just announced its first Android handset, the XPERIA X10. Hit the link below for the details.

XPERIA X10 announcement 

Via: USEB

Sony Ericsson Q3 financial results

Just as promised, Sony Ericsson revealed their financial report for Q3 2009 today. Things are still looking pretty gloomy for the company, continuing to lose money, but at least the numbers are better this time around (compared to the previous quarter).

The company has managed to ship 14.1 million handsets, which according to the company analysts, accounts for 5% market share. This is a 0.3 million increase over Q2, but still 11.6 million lower than Q3 2008.

The operating income of the company is in fact a loss of 193 million euro. While this by itself is pretty bad it shows sings of improvement over the 274 million euro loss in Q2 2009.

The average selling price of the Sony Ericsson handsets has dropped to 114 euro, from 122 euro in Q2. However this is still higher than the 109 euro ASP recorded in Q3 of 2008.

The hopes of the troubled company for survival depend on the cost-cutting programs started since mid-2008, which should reduce annual operating expenses by 880 million euro. The effect of those programs however will be felt in the second half of 2010.

In shorter terms we expect the market release sales of the Satio, Aino and Yari to have a positive effect on the company's result for the last quarter of the year.

Sony Ericsson cancels naming scheme

You might have noticed Sony Ericsson's different naming pattern recently with the Satio, Aino and Yari. This was met with a mixed response with some users favoring the traditional alphanumeric naming pattern while others felt that such a change was necessary in order for the company to realign themselves in the current market.
However, it seems that Sony Ericsson itself isn't too pleased with the response to it's new naming scheme and it has decided to revert back to its original naming pattern of having letters with numbers.
In Eldar's recent twitter post, he wrote:

So at least now SE cancelled silly naming scheme and all phones from now will have some numbers. I'm glad

Well, to be honest, so are we.

Sony Ericsson's Q4 financial results

Sony Ericsson has just announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008. It seems the overall mobile market is contracting due to the global economic slowdown. Here are the results.

In economic terms, 2008 has been a tumultuous year with world markets experiencing a serious downturn. The mobile phone market has been greatly affected by this and as expected, the fourth quarter continued to be very challenging for Sony Ericsson. Our business alignment is progressing as planned, with the full effect of annual savings of around Euro 300 million expected by the second half of 2009. We foresee a continued deterioration in the market place in 2009, particularly in the first half," said Dick Komiyama, President, Sony Ericsson.

It doesn't look good, but according to Sony Ericsson's President, Dick Komiyama, they'll focus a lot more on high-end phones in 2009. Especially the C905 and X1 have sold well, and positively impacted the business.

Official Press Release

Via: USEB

C905 pushes Sony Ericsson to top!

The new Sony Ericsson C905 sees Sony Ericsson claim UK top spot from Samsung for one week only, with Nokia down in third.

Sony Ericsson has topped the weekly sales statistics with a brand share of 28.7 per cent following the launch of its C905. According to figures published by GfK for week 44 of the year, Samsung hit second with Nokia third.Sony Ericsson’s share has grown three per cent since the C905’s launch; it is now the second best selling contract phone.

“This is a really good result,” said Sony Ericsson UK and Ireland marketing manager Dave Hilton.

Via: MobileNews

Sony Ericsson at No 3 in 3rd Quarter results

Despite Sony Ericsson’s rather obvious market difficulties, it has managed to keep its market share for the third quarter of 2008 at a consistent 8.2 percent, making Sony Ericsson the third largest mobile phone manufacturer by a margin.

The reason why Sony Ericsson has now joined the Top 3 doesn’t really have that much to do with Sony Ericsson itself but rather bad financial results from LG and Motorola that were both previously ahead of Sony Ericsson in terms of market share. Motorola’s Q3 market share is at 8.1 percent, while LG’s is at 7.4 percent.

Sony Ericsson announces Q3 results

As expected the third quarter has continued to be challenging for Sony Ericsson. We have moved forward with our plans to align operations and resources with the consolidation of R&D facilities into a more agile and cost efficient organisational structure. As previously announced, our target remains to reduce operating expenses by Euro 300 million annually by the end of the second quarter 2009, with the full effects expected to appear in the second half of 2009.These plans are progressing in line with expectations,” said Dick Komiyama, President, Sony Ericsson. “We are committed to executing our alignment plan as speedily as possible to ensure we have the right size and organisational structure to return the business to healthy profitability

Units shipped in the quarter were 25.7 million, a sequential increase but flat year-on-year, while sales for the quarter were Euro 2,808 million, a decrease of 10% compared to the third quarter of 2007. Most of this decrease reflects the impact of exchange rate fluctuations, as well as a shift of the product mix to more lower priced phones. Gross margin also decreased year-on-year and sequentially due to continued price pressure at a time of adverse cost trends in the supplier base.

Sony Ericsson SO706i on its way to Japan

Remember we told you how we envy the Japanese due to the cool handsets they have access to? Well here's another one....the Sony Ericsson SO706i, targeted at the female audience.

It features a whopping 2.8 inch widescreen TFT display at a resolution of 240 x 427 pixels. What could that large screen be used for? Mobile TV, browsing the web, checking out the Eiffel Tower in Paris with Google Maps or taking photos with the built-in 2 mega pixel camera (with auto focus, that is).

The SO706i is also a rather light phone for the Japanese market - or so it seems - as it only weighs 98 grams. It measures 105 x 49 x 13.4 millimetres, so it’s rather thin as well.

SO706i will be out in Japanese NTT DoCoMo shops on July 4, retailing at about 40,000 Japanese yen - equivalent to about $380 or 240 Euros.

Via: Softpedia

Sony Ericsson Tops J.D. Power’s Satisfaction List

Sony Ericsson has topped the JD Power's satisfaction list again..Yay!!!! I won't go into details as the chart speaks for itself!

Sony Ericsson’s sales and profit are down

Whenever Sony Ericsson releases a press release about the market sales and profits in advance of the actual press release with the final quarter results, we know something’s not going that great. And well, Sony Ericsson just released one of those press releases.

It basically states there’ll be market challenges, and that these have impacted Sony Ericsson’s sales and profit in second quarter 2008. Sony Ericsson’s estimated amount of shipped phones in Q2 is at approximately 24 million units, and the average selling price is expected to be at 115 euros. The net income before taxes is estimated to be about break-even. Sad news, indeed.

Sony Ericsson claims that its sales have been negatively affected by the moderating demand of mid/high-end phones, as well as delays of new products shipped during this quarter.Well it means more low end phones for us!