Sony has firmed up a deal to buy out its partner Ericsson in its joint venture in the mobile hardware industry, making it easy to tie in other Sony products and services.
The move seems like a natural progression for Sony, which has been increasing its presence in the mobile market over the last year. The company began releasing Playstation 1 titles on Android as well as other exclusive ‘Playstation’ branded games.
The deal, which will result in Sony ponying up $1.45 billion, gives the company access to many of Ericsson’s patents and will get rid of the unnecessary lack of cohesion between the mobile phone division and the rest of Sony Corporation.
It’s expected that Sony will focus very heavily on its Playstation brand and integrate that into future smartphone handsets. The company could also use other services like its Music Unlimited streaming platform as well as apps and other multimedia content offered through its Internet-connected Bravia TVs.
Or, as Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer put it in a statement, “We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment.”
The potentiality of such a deal was first rumored earlier this month.
It make complete sense, especially since Sony has a series of Android tablets, and without Ericsson as the middleman, it’ll be much easier to tie a smartphone strategy in with those products as well.
