Sony Ericsson, the predecessor of Sony Mobile, once launched Xperia Play which integrated PS functions, but its performance was not ideal.
Introduction: Foreign media today wrote an article pointing out that after becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony, Sony Mobile can finally move forward without historical burdens and innovate by leveraging the advantages of the Sony Group to embark on a path of recovery.
After completely parting ways with Ericsson, Sony Mobile's current goal is to quickly launch multiple new mobile devices while fully utilizing the music and video content resources of Sony Entertainment. Last October, Sony announced the acquisition of Ericsson's 50% stake in Sony Ericsson (Weibo) (hereinafter referred to as "SE"). This deal was completed on February 16th, making SE a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony, renamed Sony Mobile Communications, with Bert Nordberg serving as President and CEO.
Both Kazuo Hirai, who will become Sony's new CEO on April 1st, and Nordberg expressed in interviews their belief that Sony will ultimately be able to fully control the future development of Sony Mobile. Hirai said that Sony Mobile will be able to make decisions faster regarding the company's direction and shorten the time-to-market for new products.
He said: "Competitors don't face the problem of dealing with two parent companies simultaneously. Sony Mobile can now quickly formulate future strategies and implement them, which indeed is the work we must do at present. Besides ensuring the smooth implementation of Sony Mobile's integration, our primary task at present is to quickly deliver multiple smartphones to users."
Nordberg also stated that the experiment of each company holding half of the joint venture's equity is a road he will never repeat: "In the joint venture, no party bears full responsibility. Since there are two masters, you always have to choose the middle path between two roads, and the middle path is never the best path."
Due to intensified competition and price declines, SE incurred a net loss of 247 million euros (approximately $330 million) in its final year of operation. Under Nordberg's leadership, SE adopted Google Android as its smartphone operating platform, but according to market research firm Gartner's data, SE's smartphone market share was only 1.8% last year.
Like HTC (Weibo) and LG Electronics, these relatively smaller Android phone manufacturers, SE also faced a pincer attack from Apple's iPhone and Samsung's high-performance Android smartphones. Industry insiders frequently pointed out that due to Android devices all using the same operating platform, there is a lack of differentiation among small Android device brands, leading to numerous challenges.
Nordberg believes that Apple has an advantage because its products and services are closely linked. To catch up with Apple, Sony Mobile needs to fully utilize the advantages of Sony's assets. He said: "After being owned by Sony, Sony Mobile can freely use Sony Entertainment's network resources. Suddenly, Sony Mobile can obtain all of Sony's music, video, TV content, and we can strengthen cooperation with Sony's gaming business."
However, Sony Mobile has yet to propose plans on how to integrate the Xperia Play device with PlayStation gaming functions. According to market research firm Canalys' data, Xperia Play performed unsatisfactorily, selling less than 700,000 units globally in its first three months of release. This is a typical example of Sony's unwillingness to invest its brand resources into SE leading to product failure.
But now, Sony is beginning to worry about the potential negative effects of the Xperia Play competing with its own PSP handheld console. Hirai said: "If we believe that we can provide users with an excellent gaming experience, as well as an impressive communication experience, we would consider developing such a device. But we don't want to launch a product that is the result of compromise."