Last October we reported on Sony’s desire to go it alone with their mobile phone business, which will effectively end its partnership with Ericsson.
Now, the Sony Ericsson partnership and mobile phone brand is effectively ended as the deal for Sony buying out Ericson in the partnership has been consummated. Sony has paid Ericsson the equivalent of $1.3 billion.
The money will mean Sony will get ownership of a large array of patents that are within the scope of wireless communications and mobile communications. Sony will now also be able to integrate its mobile phones with its other products – for example, its laptops, HDTVs and game consoles, among others. The final date of the buyout also comes in at a perfect time because of Sony’s Dot Switch, an announcement it will make on February 21. The popular opinion is that this will bring its four different “screens” – HDTVs, phones, tablets and computers – all together in some form of connectivity or shared feature.
With the buyout, Sony Ericsson will now be known as Sony Mobile Communications. But the final phaseout of the “Sony Ericsson” brand won’t happen until the middle of 2012. The Xperia Active Billabong Edition is expected to be the final phone to be released within the Sony Ericsson brand.
Mobile phone fans are now waiting with bated breath now that Sony has unshackled itself from the Ericsson partnership. We wonder as well what Sony will be bringing to the mobile phone table in the future.
Originally posted on February 17, 2012 @ 7:19 pm