Phones: Xperia, Walkman
Entered market: 1993 (as Ericsson), 2001 (as Sony Ericsson)
Latest Model: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Xperia Arc

• Makers of high-quality, multimedia focused smartphones running many different operating systems, but recently settled on Google’s Android
• Wide range covers everything from music phones to keyboard based smartphones
• Cameras and music players based on Sony CyberShot and Walkman technology
• Friendly design aesthetic helps set apart many of its phones
• Still new to Android, some integration has not been smooth
• Has many phones that do a few things well, but lacking for options that can do it all

Sony Ericsson's future plans and development

It took a lot to get SE to play nice with Android, given Sony’s reputation for guarding their products from open-source tweaking. With the Xperia enjoying some good press, SE will trundle on as a pocket showcase for Sony’s display and camera technologies. No specific handsets have been announced for release in the near future.

Sony Ericsson's history

Ericsson started out in the Australian mobile market as the also-ran to Nokia, with phones that offered little in terms of innovation, but were generally cheaper. Japanese electronics giant Sony joined Ericsson in a joint venture in 2001, and went about producing some very nice featurephones that took advantage of the Walkman brand to challenge the original iPod, presenting itself as the first company to put your music player and phone into one device. Once the iPhone came around, both SE and the Walkman brands suffered a steep decline.

Marketplace

Sony Ericsson probably has some life left in it, owning 3-4% of the market and maintaining a decent reputation for fun, well-built handsets. SE owners tend to stay loyal, and with Android, there’s little reason to believe SE will be going anywhere – up or down – any time soon. Unless Sony jettisons its mobile division, which remains a possibility.

Sony Ericsson providers

Vodafone will happily provide you with the really-quite-good Xperia Play for $0 on a $29 cap plan, on a 24 month contract. The bigger and beefier Arc will run you $10 a month on the same plan and contract. Amongst the BYO providers, it’s hard to beat Amaysim’s $39.90 unlimited plan, which comes with unlimited standard voice and text, and a whopping 4GB of data.

Conclusion

Sony Ericsson is a likeable brand, producing innovative, highly capable handsets with a friendly look and feel. Unfortunately, everything they do is done slightly better by their competitors. SE’s recent adoption of Android will help bring them up to date with the rest of the market, but it will take a major breakthrough to compete again at the top of the game.