Sony Ericsson Sees Android as Solution to its Woes

Sony Ericsson had a miserable quarter with sales off 19% year over year, but net income fell a staggering 48% to â‚¬11 million over the same period. It’s OK though, CEO Bert Nordberg had this to say:

(SE) will continue its shift towards making (Android) smartphones after concluding that it “can’t make money” from more basic handsets.

That’s all good and fine, but a cursory glance at the current Sony Ericsson product portfolio page shows that of the 66 models that they list as available, only four are Android-based devices. Still, that 6% of available devices accounted for nearly 60% of total sales.

Will Sony Ericsson Follow Motorola’s Road to Redemption via Android?

If you pay any attention to the industry at all you can’t help but be aware of the ashes-to-ashes, dust-to-dust and back again journey that Motorola has experienced over the last several years as they transitioned to Android. SE can certainly do the same thing if they decide to get started.

There is this one last quote from the end of the article that sums up the task:

Carolina Milanesi, at Gartner: “But the biggest problem they have in the US is that consumers are used to seeing Sony Ericsson as a cheaper, tier two kind of brand.”

Sony Ericsson has a lot riding on the upcoming release of the Xperia X10 on the Verizon network. It could be the start of their comeback, or it could be the beginning of the end. Only time will tell.

Source: FT.com