Sony Mobile Communications Inc. was a multinational mobile phone company founded on October 1, 2001. It manufactured mobile phones under its own brand name, Sony. It once operated as a joint venture with Swedish mobile phone maker, Ericsson, and became known as Sony Ericsson. Note that in the early 2000s, Ericsson was the world’s 3rd largest mobile phone maker behind Nokia and Motorola. Classic Ericsson models included Ericsson T28 flip phone, T68i, R320 and R380 series. Sony Ericsson also produced great multimedia and photography phones in their time, including world leading models like Sony Ericsson T230, T610, P800, and P900 series. The company was known for its top-of-the-line Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones. Eventually, Sony Ericsson switched to Android OS for its smartphones. Some of the early Android phones included Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro and Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro. In its hey days, Sony Ericsson was one of the 5th largest mobile phone makers in the world. But eventually, its fortunes began to wane and gradually, the company began to struggle to hold on to its market share. Sony was to later acquire Ericsson’s share of the joint venture in 2012 and the company again became known as Sony Mobile Communications. The company is known for the Xperia smartphone brand, made up of phones which run Android OS. But Sony has continued to struggle in the smartphone market till date.
The history of Sony Xperia phones, in summary
The brand went from Sony, to Sony Ericsson, and then present-day Sony Xperia. When you see a phone with just the “Sony” tag, that phone was made in the early 2000s. They were mostly feature phones, as advanced as they were. Those with the “Sony Ericsson” or “Sony Ericsson Xperia” tags were produced later during the joint venture partnership between Sony and Ericsson. These included some feature phones, Symbian OS smartphones and some Windows-powered smartphones. Phones with the “Sony Xperia” tag are from the the most recent era and all run Android OS. How well do you know Sony Mobile? If you own or have owned any Sony phone, no matter how long ago, do tell us about it using the comment box below. Get MobilityArena updates on social media To be notified of the most important articles and the best smartphone deals, join the Mobility Arena WhatsApp Group. Do not forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
