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Back in the end of 2007, I asked our readers what their question would be if they had the chance to ask Sony Ericsson’s new CEO, Hideki Komiyama, a question. I then picked out a set of 10 questions, and passed it on to the new and busy CEO. Today I’ve received answers on six of the questions, while the others have been passed on to the corresponding sections at Sony Ericsson for a later reply. You’ll find the answered questions after the break.

I have marked out some of the most interesting stuff in the answers.

• Question number 3

Mr. Komiyama

It seems SE has been so preoccupied with producing low level phones to increasing market share and you have unacceptable delay to producing high level phones such as N95, iPhone, U600, Prada, Armani and also Adidas phones rivals. This policy affected your market share growth also. Why don’t you push the consumers to your SE great products as you did it before by producing innovative products?

Actually you’re the first person I’ve heard say that we’ve been preoccupied with producing low level phones. Until the most recent past, the general perception and opinion about Sony Ericsson has been that we are a niche manufacturer capable of producing only mid to high-level phones. Your opinion doesn’t seem to be in line with the general perception of our company. We have actually broadened our portfolio a lot over the past 12 to 18 months, and have announced a much larger number of lower priced phones than in the past. Perhaps you have been following our product announcements and this has created a certain opinion.

Innovation is at the heart of everything we do and I hope you’ve seen or experienced our latest product offerings. Design, features, applications, content and services are all important differentiators for us. Our leading position in music, with our Walkman brand of phones, and in imaging, with our Cyber-shot brand of phones, has been recognised. In fact, at the February 2008 Mobile World Congress the GSMA recognised our success in 2007 by awarding us with the ‘Best Handset’ award for our W910 Walkman music phones. I think this is saying something about Sony Ericsson as a leading global company.

• Question number 4

Mr. Komiyama,

What are your plans on advertising SE products for 2008? Will we see SE advertising aggressively across all products like other top 5 players? Also, do you believe that design is THE main thing for consumers when buying products and features as mentioned by one of your officials?

It is our company policy not to announce marketing plans so I will not share our plans with you at this time. But I can confirm that advertising -both online, in print and on TV- are all tools that we will continue to use going forward. What’s important for us is to engage with our consumers and to create an energised user experience via our phones, in terms of features, applications, content and services. In everything we do we try to promote the ‘Sony Ericsson differentiation’ which includes product design as well as features, applications, content and services. Design is important, but not for design’s sake; I believe design needs to be functional as well.

• Question number 5

What is Sony Ericsson’s view on Apple in regards to their attempt to enter the mobile market and their product design (usability, ‘fun’, aesthetics) which has been well received by consumers?

It’s obvious that Apple’s iPhone is proving to be a very attractive product for consumers – despite its lack of features, its ease of use and enjoyment are enough to make people think that it’s worth its fairly hefty price tag. Instead of denying the technological backwardness of the iPhone, Sony Ericsson should accept that having a very easy to use phone with some ‘wow’ factor is what consumers want, rather than waiting too long and coming out with a ‘copycat’ product which will be out far too late.

So far this year we have announced some of the most exciting and innovative products in the industry. Innovation is very important to Sony Ericsson, and when you study our products you will find that they have a number of original features such as gesture control, shake control, both of which bring a sense of ‘wow’ and fun to consumers. Applications and services such as Track ID and PlayNow Arena enable users to get the most out of our phones. And let’s not forget that we’ve announced some very innovative form factors such as clamshell, stick and slides, including the arch shaped slider of our new sub-brand phone, the XPERIA X1 model.

In short, we know all about creating a ‘wow’ factor with consumers. Having sold 57 million Walkman branded music phones since launch in mid-2005 to the end of 2007, I believe we understand consumer tastes. Our Cyber-shot imaging phones have also been successful; we’ve sold 18 million Cyber-shot branded imaging phones from mid-2006 to the end of 2007.

With the convergence of mobile communications, web and entertainment, Sony Ericsson is in the best position to delivery a seamless and energised user experience.

• Question number 6

How does Sony Ericsson intend to differentiate itself from the other phone manufacturers for the next two years? Sony Ericsson has done a fantastic job differentiating itself in terms of its strength of music and the camera, and in terms of its unique designs. However, customers have become more complex, and would require more functionality and complexity in their phones.

Please refer to the answers to the above two questions. They will give you an example of how we are differentiating ourselves from our competitors. Actually, based on what we know of consumer preferences, not all consumers want more complex functions or features in their phones. They may wish to have advanced phones, but they don’t necessarily want to see or even understand the technology behind the features. In general we are finding that consumers want choice, and for this reason we offer a full portfolio of product offerings, from high-end phones such as the XPERIA X1 to some more competitively priced phones with radio features such as the models we announced in January this year, which were inspired by and made for markets such as India.

• Question number 7

Sony Ericsson seems to have the best hope of taking over Samsung and Motorola in the rankings of phone manufacturers. How does Sony Ericsson aim to move into the top three ranks? Is that a goal for 2008 and does Sony Ericsson sees it as achievable? Also, LG is proving to be a strong competitor to Sony Ericsson, with its strong growth this year. How does Sony Ericsson intend to fight off the competition?

Our ambition is to become a top 3 global player by 2010. This is something I announced in mid-January this year. We have a clear strategy for how we believe we can achieve our ambition and are starting to put our words into action via the types of product announcements we have so far this year. Please study our products and experience them at a retailer near you.

• Question number 10

Dear Mr. Komiyama,

Would like to ask why the best of your latest phones like W960/P1 are not compatible with the USA 3G networks? Will the future phones support the full USA market?

The US market is an important market for Sony Ericsson, and earlier this year I visited the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to be on hand at our product announcements. We announced some great new products which have been optimized for the US market, and I took this opportunity to confirm to the media I met that we are committed to the US market. The reality is that only a few operators in this market are working in the GSM world, and as you know several years ago we withdrew from the CDMA market. Please continue to watch our progress in the US market.

Furthermore, Mr Hideki Komiyama had a few additional comments, he’d like to have passed on to you.

I was pleased to have attended my first Mobile World Congress this year. One of the important trends I noticed at this show was that of integration of mobile technologies, applications, user interfaces and software. I also realized that partnerships with operators are key, and this is something that Sony Ericsson has been focusing on for quite some time. I also sensed a feeling of enthusiasm from operators in general, and their growing desire to integrate services into our phones. I believe greater user experience from Sony Ericsson will help operators to drive their business. Lastly, I received feedback from operators that we were bold to introduce a new platform and a new sub-brand at this year’s show, referring to our announcement of XPERIA and the X1 phone.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 7:37 pm and is filed under article, exclusive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.