One of the most common questions about Sony Ericsson mobile phones is regarding whether the company still manufactures phones or not. The answer is actually more complicated than a simple yes or no. If you are wondering why that is so, then you will find the following paragraphs to be quite interesting.
What Happened to Sony Ericsson Phones?
The last phone released under the Sony Ericsson brand name was way back in 2011/12. Therefore, it would be technically accurate to state that Sony Ericsson phones are a thing of the past because the brand itself stopped existing over a decade ago. However, that does not portray the full picture.
The partnership between the Japanese company Sony, and the Swedish company Ericsson started way back in 2001 and lasted for roughly 11 years, with mixed results. However, Sony decided to acquire the entire Sony Ericsson Mobile brand for a whopping €1.05 billion in October 2011 and the transaction concluded in February 2012.
Note that the Ericsson in Sony Ericsson still exists, but the brand Sony Ericsson Mobile Incorporated does not exist anymore. Ericsson now exclusively caters to enterprise-grade, B2B telecommunication and IT requirements. Sony, on the other hand, acquired almost the entire team, all resources, and assets that went into manufacturing the old Sony Ericsson phones.
As we all know, Sony did not step out of the smartphone market which was already booming at that point in time. Therefore, the Sony Ericsson phones were still being manufactured by the same team, but the Ericsson company and their logo were a thing of the past from 2012 onwards. Instead, Sony Ericsson now became Sony Xperia.
Is there a Sony Ericsson Xperia Phone?
Sony Ericsson was renamed Sony Xperia, but it’s a common point of confusion. Unlike the ‘Ericsson’ in Sony Ericsson, Xperia is just a brand name in Sony Xperia and not a separate company that Sony partnered with after the split. Therefore, there is no Sony Ericsson Xperia phone today. However, there were a few released between 2008 and 2011. Sony Ericsson Xperia phones do not exist anymore because Sony kept the brand name but not the partner.
You could argue that much of the same team was still working on the Sony Xperia smartphones when Sony Ericsson Xperia first became Sony Xperia, and in many ways, you would be right. Initially, the first Sony Xperia smartphones did have several similarities with the previously released Sony Ericsson Xperia phones, as the same team was working on the design and software even after the split.
However, the brand name Sony Xperia never took off in the same way as the Sony Ericsson Xperia brand did. That being said, very few people realised that there was a split to begin with. According to search engine data from those early days, most searches related to Sony phones included the keywords Sony Ericsson, Sony Ericsson phones, and later on, Sony Ericsson Xperia model names.
Even in 2023, millions of people still search for Sony Ericsson Xperia smartphones because the brand name Sony Ericsson reached iconic status back in the day. Surveys show that people who experienced the Sony Ericsson brand back in the 2000s still consciously/subconsciously consider it to be an existing brand.
While a Sony Ericsson Xperia smartphone may not exist anymore unfortunately, the popularity of Sony Ericsson as a keyword even today stands as a testament to the brand’s huge impact on people’s minds to date. In reminiscence of the old Sony Ericsson and Sony Ericsson Xperia phones, here are the most popular and successful Sony Ericsson smartphones from the old days:
- Sony Ericsson K-750 and K-850
- Sony Ericsson P-800 & P-900
- Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and X10
After the Sony Ericsson Mobile Split: What About Sony Xperia Smartphones?
Although there won’t be another Sony Ericsson Xperia phone in the near future, there were plenty of Sony Xperia mobile phones that the Japanese tech giant released over the next decade. Some of the most popular Sony Xperia phones to have ever been released by the Sony Xperia brand and not the Sony Ericsson Xperia brand are:
- Sony Xperia Z1 (2013)
- Sony Xperia Z3 (2014)
- Sony Xperia Z5 (2015)
- Sony Xperia X and XZ (2016)
Sony Mobile Fails Without Sony Ericsson: What Happened To Sony Xperia?
The Sony Xperia brand did not manage to do anything for Sony Mobile and the split from Ericsson turned out to be the worst possible decision for Sony down the line. While the split alone cannot be blamed as the sole reason for Sony’s failure to capitalise on the growing smartphone business across the globe, the end of the Sony Ericsson brand name was undoubtedly the biggest reason responsible.
Sony decided to finally cut its losses and put an end to the Xperia brand name in 2021, after recording an all-time low global sales number of just 2.9 million units. To get some context, consider the fact that Sony decided to part with Ericsson after recording what was an all-time low sales number of 12.9 million units for the Sony Ericsson brand back then. That’s 10 million more units sold globally at a time when the global smartphone market was nowhere near as big as it is today.
To provide you with an even better context, we need to compare the best of Sony Ericsson sales with the best of Sony Xperia sales. Between the fiscal years 2007 and 2008, 103.9 million Sony Ericsson mobile phones were sold globally. After the split, Sony managed to sell 39.1 million units for two consecutive fiscal years between 2013 and 2015. That means Sony Ericsson phones sold 25.7 million more mobile phones in one fiscal year than Sony Mobiles managed to sell in two of their best fiscal years combined!
After suffering losses from their smartphone business for more than a decade, Sony finally decided to shut down the Sony Xperia brand for good in 2021. The last flagship smartphone ever released under the Sony Xperia brand was the Sony Xperia 1 III. Aside from having one of the most confusing names ever, the Xperia 1 series did not manage to garner much attention. In conclusion, we can confidently assume that there will neither be a Sony Ericsson Xperia, nor a Sony Xperia smartphone in the foreseeable future.
A Future Without Sony Ericsson Phones: Does Sony Still Manufacture Smartphones?
The Japanese tech giant has taken several steps to reshuffle their business strategy and structure, especially to make up for their huge losses throughout the last decade or so. It’s a process that is still ongoing, so nothing has been confirmed beyond the fact that there won’t be any Sony Ericsson or Sony Xperia phones heading our way anytime soon. That can change of course, but it’s still very unlikely to happen. Even if Sony continues to manufacture and sell phones, it will be limited to select niches and geographical locations.
Sony Mobiles is now absorbed into Sony Corporations Incorporated which means that there is no Sony Mobiles Inc. anymore. There might be a PlayStation phone coming out though, but it won’t be targeted at the mainstream smartphone consumer market. Instead, Sony is now focussing on developing more gamer-centric hardware and software.