So what does £964 million buy you? Well Ericsson’s 50% stake of course, but also five sets of patents that Sony will need to actually make phones as well as a licensing deal on other intellectual property held by Ericsson.

Commenting on the deal Sony’s chairman Sir Howard Stringer said:

This acquisition makes sense for Sony and Ericsson, and it will make the difference for consumers, who want to connect with content wherever they are, whenever they want.

That’s corporate speak for: Ericsson get some dosh, we get full control, future phones will tie in with our various divisions. For it’s part Ericsson summed up its decision to sell as being a result of the synergies between telecoms equipment and mobile phones decreasing.

So there we have it folks … the end of an era … 10 years down the line and the joint venture is over. What now?

The report claims that Sony are looking to integrate the mobile phone division with its existing tablet, computer and hand-held gaming divisions. This would cut costs for the company as well as allow for better synergy between those different areas.

The deal to buy Ericsson out is apparently near completion according to the WSJ, but some obstacles remain. These include Ericsson’s mobile technology patents, which some estimates value at $1.7 billion. Even so the report is siding on the view that a deal will be reached.

WSJ

Heads’s up folks. You can check out our review of the Xperia Neo here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With a range of new handsets, chief amongst them the Xperia play and the Xperia arc, and a massive cost cutting campaign the obvious question would be why the loss? Well Sony Ericsson’s president. Bert Nordberg, is putting the blame on the Japanese earthquake, saying that it disrupted Sony Ericsson’s supply chain. It’s a fair comment, after all the earthquake and tsunami did have a huge impact upon the electronics industry and apparently, in Sony Ericsson’s case, resulted in the loss of 1.5 million handsets.

So what are the changes? Well Rikard didn’t go into excruciating detail, but you can expect a new look to the site as well as an improved comments section. The enhancements will feature threaded comments, to give the blog a bit more of a discussion feel presumably. There will also be the ability to give posts a ‘thumbs up’! Yay! No doubt there will be some downtime whilst the changes are made although Rikard didn’t say exactly when.

Rikard himself is taking some well earned parental leave to spend some time with his family.

The Xperia ray features a Mobile BRAVIA engine and Exmor R like the arc and sports a 3.3 inch display with an 8.1 MP camera to back it up. It will come in your choice of colour as long as your choice of colour includes black, gold, white or pink.

The Xperia active, as its name may have suggested, is the phone of choice for the outdoors-man (or clumsy people). The handset is dust and water proof as well as featuring a scratch resistant multi-touch screen with support for wet finger tracking.

The screen is just 3 inches though and the camera also sees a reduction compared with the ray, being a 5 MP model (with HD support).

We can confirm that the W8 Walkman phone will be avilable in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The Walkman branding and the legacy from previous Walkman phones is very strong in these particular markets and therefore we decided to launch the phone in these markets.

It would seem, according to that statement, that Sony Ericsson regards Europe as having moved on from the Walkman brand. Mind you the device isn’t exactly at the top table when it comes to specifications and probably won’t have a top tier price tag so it could be as much a case of fitting it to demographics as it is brand awareness and loyalty.

[via Unwired View]

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