For many in the US, Sony Ericsson is kind of like Sony’s half brother. Sometimes you think of it, sometimes you don’t, and you hardly ever invite it over to Thanksgiving. But that’s going to change this year, as the mobile company is all grown up and eager to impress.
One of the most important changes the company made last year was going all Android all the time. Sony Ericsson stopped using other mobile platforms like Nokia’s Symbian and is instead using all its energy where the market is hot right now.
In spite of that, however, the firm’s Xperia line of phones was mangled with problems, there was no marketing backbone, and it didn’t do nearly as well as it should have. Sony Ericsson’s now chalking all that up to experience and saying 2011 will be a very different scenario.
“As we do every year, we’ve taken those learnings and applied them to the new products in the new portfolio. We do think we’ve taken a big step forward for 2011,” said Sony Ericsson global marketing head Steve Walker, in a Pocket-Lint interview.
At CES, the company showed off the Xperia Arc, a revolutionary phone coming pre-installed with the Gingerbread, 2.3, version of Android. That makes it one of the first handsets to get the most current version of the operating system.
Also big this year will be the PlayStation phone, which is also being sold under the “Xperia” brand. Sony Ericsson hasn’t spoiled any official details of it yet, but we know that it’s all but confirmed.
It is indeed true that we’ve had our eyes on Sony Ericsson much more in the past few months than we ever did for years before that. So this isn’t just PR fluff; it looks like Sony’s mobile division will actually work very hard to impress us this year, leaving the only question as whether or not consumers will take the bait.
