Sony to shed Ericsson tag; focus on smartphones

Japan's Sony Corp is in the process of re-branding its mobile handsets after acquiring Swedish company Ericsson's share in the ten-year-old Indian joint venture Sony Ericsson.

''A lot of planning goes into getting the branding right, but we will be done by middle of next year. It will also mean that the marketing and advertising investments will go up.

''We haven't been as fierce as we were a few years back but we will step it up, refocus and invest more in brand-building in select markets - and India is one of those markets," Kristian Tear, executive vice president and head of sales and marketing, Sony Ericsson, today told newspersons in Mumbai.

By next year, the re-branding is expected to happen across the globe. The company also plans to aggressively push its Android-enabled smartphones.

A senior executive from the Japanese consumer electronics conglomerate said by the middle of next year, the Sony Ericsson brand will be phased out even as it looks to become a complete smartphone company. It would then sell its smartphones under the Sony brand.

The mobile handset maker, famous for its Walkman series phones, has been left behind in the race for market share in the last few years but is now banking on the smartphone segment.

The Indian operations of Sony Ericsson will also follow the global strategy and by next year become a pure-play smartphone brand as its line of feature phones makes an exit, said Tear.