Archive for the ‘corporative’ Category

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Sony Ericsson’s appoints new Chief Technology Officer – Jan Uddenfeldt

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Looks like theres a major change in the management of the Sony Ericsson team with the move of Jan Uddenfeldt from the position of Advisor to the CEO and Senior Vice-President to the position of Chief Technology Officer. For the majority of you who dont quite know what a CTO is, heres a quote from wikipedia-
 A Chief Technical Officer or more commonly Chief Technology Officer (abbreviated as CTO), is an executive-level position in a company or other entity whose occupant is focused on scientific and technological issues within an organization. It typically involves overseeing Research and Development (R&D) activities, and formulating long-term visions and strategies at the officer level. Essentially, a CTO is responsible for the transformation of capital – be it monetary, intellectual, or political – into technology in furtherance of the company’s objectives. They must typically combine a strong technical or scientific background with business development skills.

 

 

 Bert Nortberg (President of Sony Ericsson) also commented on this announcement saying-

“I am very pleased today to announce the appointment of Jan Uddenfeldt to our management team as our new CTO and Head of Sony Ericsson Silicon Valley. Jan is deeply rooted in the telecommunications industry, and he will bring a wealth of experience and insight to Sony Ericsson. Over the years he has gained a deep understanding of our industry’s leading technologies, as well as our key operator customers around the world.”

Read the entire article here.

We can only hope for better phones from Sony Ericsson now, judging by the new position he holds in the company and his experience. What do you think about this move? Discuss it in our forums and let us know what you think.

Source – Sony Ericsson Press Room

Image Source – NyTeknik

From Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog: http://blog.se-nse.n…jan-uddenfeldt/

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Posted in announcement, corporative | 12 Comments »

Sony Ericsson Sees 292% Smartphone Growth

Friday, May 7th, 2010

With their finances looking a little better this year, after some heavy cost cutting and job losses it has to be said, Sony Ericsson could finally start to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Well that light seems to have gotten a bit brighter if their smartphone sales are anything to go by. Year on year from Q1 2009 to Q1 2010 Sony Ericsson saw its smartphone sales grow by an astonishing 292%. That’s one hell of an increase and it is seems to be chiefly dependent on sales of Satio and Vivaz. Importantly sales of the X10, Sony Ericsson’s current flagship handset, are not counted in the figure so it will be interesting to see just how that handset has affected the company’s performance, if not forthcoming handsets like the X10 Mini and Mini Pro.

[via se-blog.com]

Posted in corporative, market-share, news, satio, vivaz | 7 Comments »

UK MD Interview – 16 New Phones for 2010

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Sitting drinking my coffee this morning I spotted a rather interesting interview given to Mobile Today by Nathan Vautier. Who is he some of you may ask? He’s Sony Ericsson’s head honcho in the UK & Ireland. The interview proved to be pretty interesting so I’ll give you the jist of it and cover some of the juicier points. The two main themes of the interview were essentially what SE would be doing this year and what they intended to do about the infamous quality control problems that have dogged them for the past year or so.

On the first point Mr Vautier was able to approach the question from a position of strength,. He made mention of the ‘Fab 5′ of course and reaffirmed that the X10 and Vivaz were key launch products for SE. He also mentioned that there would be a total of 16 new devices released in the UK & Ireland this year (including the Fab 5). That means we still have another 11 to go. Of course a number of them probably won’t be super high-end devices, indeed Mr Vautier made it clear that the Walkman brand was here to stay when he said that there would be a number of Walkman products from around the middle of the year and that they would be in the £100 range. That would indicate somewhere in the mid-range of the market.

Mr Vautier was also keen to point out that the overall portfolio this year, including some handset from last year, would be 26 handsets, which he hailed as a major reduction. This ties in with some opening remarks he made about how SE wasn’t going after market share or numbers. Of course they aren’t really in a position to go after marketshare or numbers at the moment, so there’s a bit of spin here, but the basic idea is sound.

In terms of quality Mr Vautier gave the answer that was pretty much expected of him … SE are taking steps to improve the situation. He gave some examples of how they’re doing that such as cutting the number of components they use to improve testing efficiency and restructuring their KPI system (key performance indicator) so that it focused on qualitative issues. He was eager to stress just how much work SE had done over the past 18 months to address the issues, but the proof is in the pudding as the saying goes. It’s easy enough to spot comments from concerned customers over upcoming products like the X10 so SE really do have to get these new handsets right first time to restore some of the confidence and trust they’ve lost.

You can read the full interview here.

Posted in Opinion, corporative, interview, market-share | No Comments »

Sony Ericsson Posts 1.043 Billion Euro Loss for 2009

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Something of a mixed bag in Sony Ericsson’s annual figures, which were released today. On the face of it the figures don’t look particularly good with sales down from 11.244 billion euros in 2008 to 6.788 billion euros in 2009. Shipped units fell from 96.6 million in 2008 to 57.1 million last year and operating income plummeted from -113 million euros in 2008 to -1.018 billion euros in 2009. All that translated to a pre-tax 2009 income of -1.043 billion euros.

Sony Ericsson’s President, Bert Nordberg, talked about a refreshed portfolio as being key to the company turning itself around and in particular mentioned the X10, which many are viewing as the company’s best chance to catch up with rivals and inject fresh interest in the brand. Sales have suffered recently with the last quarter of 2009 seeing a 40% decrease year on year. Sony Ericsson put the blame for this on the shrinking global handset market, which saw an 8% decrease last year. However, they also pointed to “… a faster than anticipated shift to touch screen phones in the mid-priced sector of the market”. This may come as something of a surprise to customers and industry watchers given the popularity that mid-range touchscreen handsets like LG’s Cookie and Samsung’s Tocco Lite have enjoyed for more than a year now.

Throughout 2009 there had been speculation that parent company Ericsson was thinking of abandoning the joint venture with Sony, but both Ericsson and Sony contributed funding to the tune of 350 million euros to the venture, 50% of that figure coming from each parent. So far Sony Ericsson has used 255 million euros of that, but retain a 200 million euro fund for use over the next two years. Mr Nordberg pointed out that the restructuring costs and spending cuts were taking effect with Sony Ericsson’s debt being reduced.

Read the full statement here.

Posted in corporative, market, market-share, news | 12 Comments »

CEO Says SE Needs Better & More Expensive Handsets!

Monday, October 19th, 2009

SE’s new chap at the top, Bert Nordberg, is increasingly looking to be someone that is going to do some ass kicking at Sony Ericsson. Why do I say this? Well let’s look at an interview he recently gave to a Swedish website. In the interview Mr Nordberg made some comments that should give Sony Ericsson’s beleaguered customers a little bit of hope that we may at last, at long last, be seeing the company turn in the right direction.

For one Mr Nordberg wants to see Sony Ericsson return to profitability by next year. That’s a bold statement to make considering the losses the company has sustained over the past year ad the fact that the global economic recovery is still in its early days. Indeed the website conducting the interview made a point to note that most analysts are still looking at 2011 before SE can once again turn a profit. At any rate it’s a sign that Mr Nordberg is aiming high at least.

Next on his list is to cut the number of managers at Sony Ericsson. He says he wants a ‘flatter’ structure, most likely meaning a lot less bureaucracy (which if you’ve ever dealt with Sony Ericsson you will know can be headache inducing).  It’s also about economics though, reducing the number of managers will save Sony Ericsson money. As you may recall Sony Ericsson has already implemented job cuts, with more than 2,000 jobs already having gone. It’s never a good thing when someone loses their job of course, but hopefully these measures see the company turn a profit again all the sooner and enable them to start creating jobs again.

Mr Nordberg saved the best for last though when he talked about the main road to profitability …better and more expensive handsets! His actual statement being:

We should spend more on advanced phones and raise the average selling price … We will not chase market share by selling 25 dollar phones in India

It almost brings a tear to your eye. It actually sounds like the Sony Ericsson of old again. It looks like the big bold handsets that enter the market to kick ass are coming back thanks to a CEO who, as I said, looks to be kicking some ass too with his call for “swift and decisive action”.

[di.se via se-blog.com]

Read the interview here (Swedish) and here (English translation).

Posted in corporative, future, interview | No Comments »

Sony Ericsson CEO Hideki Komiyama to retire soon

Monday, August 17th, 2009

dick-komiyama-bert-nordberg

Well, it seems that Mr. Komiyama has had enough. We think. He’ll be retiring at the end of the year, with Ericsson’s executive, Bert Nordberg, taking his place. Also, Sony’s Sir Howard Stringer is going to become the new board chairman.

Despite the grim outlooks, caused by the ratehr unpleasant recent losses, it has once again been stated that the joint venture is not going to vaporize any time soon. If necessary, extra funds are going to be injected into the operation of the struggling company.

Source: Reuters

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Posted in corporative, news | No Comments »

Sony Ericsson announces Q1 results, mentions next Entertainment Unlimited announcement date

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Sony Ericsson just announced its Q1 financial results, and as expected, things aren’t looking too bright.

q12009

Sony Ericsson will have to perform another cost savings program, which will include a further reduction in employees of approximately 2,000 people.

They’re hoping it’ll be completed in mid 2010.

Also announced today was the next Entertainment Unlimited announcement date. This will be on May 28, and based on what Sony Ericsson wrote in the press release, it will not be about Idou, but a new product.

You can read the entire press release yourself over at Sony Ericsson’s press lounge.

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Posted in corporative, news | 12 Comments »

Mats Lindoff leaves Sony Ericsson as CTO, ‘Ron’ Louks assumes the position

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

mats_lindoff

Sony Ericsson today announced that its Chief Technology Officer Mats Lindoff has decided to leave the company effective 31st of March, apparently to pursue new career opportunities. Effective 1st of April, Ronald ‘Ron’ Louks, who is currently the Head of Technology, Americas, and Deputy CTO at Sony Ericsson, will assume the role of CTO.

“After six inspiring years I have decided to pursue other opportunities outside Sony Ericsson. To be a member of the team who has built up Sony Ericsson has been a great privilege. The course of evolution and change in our industry has been extraordinary, thanks to the very creative, innovative and passionate people I have met at Sony Ericsson. I leave the company with many fond memories and wish the company well in the future,” said Mats Lindoff in a press release.

Mats has been a great part of Sony Ericsson, and he will indeed be missed.

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Posted in corporative, news | 2 Comments »

Sony Ericsson: “Neither plan to walk away”

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

We’ve published numerous posts with rumours of a possible split between Ericsson and Sony, but now a Sony Ericsson exec refutes these rumours of a split.

TechRadar has spoken with Richard Dorman, who’s a Senior Marketing Manager at Sony Ericsson, who refuted the rumours: “The relationship between Sony and Ericsson is a strong as it ever has been, and neither plan to walk away.”

Dorman also commented on Sony Ericsson’s not so bright financial situation:

“I was just on a conference call with the head of western Europe, and he made a great point: before the partnership both Sony and Ericsson’s handset divisions were losing money, but we proved a partnership can work. We had a tough time in 2008, a tough 12 months, but that doesn’t mean the partnership will dissolve. As far as we’re concerned, it’s full steam ahead, and we’ll look to the power of the partnership to turn things around.”

In my opinion he proves a valid point. Both Ericsson’s and Sony’s handset divisions were losing a lot of money before the joint venture, and I can’t see that changing if they split up. What do you think?

Source: TechRadar

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Posted in corporative, news | 6 Comments »

IBM and Sony Ericsson signs 5-year outsourcing agreement

Friday, January 30th, 2009

According to Cellular News, IBM has signed a 5-year outsourcing agreement with Sony Ericsson. The agreement will be regarding the management of Application Maintainence and Development of Sony Ericsson’s systems, applications and products globally. This agreement is part of Sony Ericsson’s plans of improving the company operations and the business in general.

- This relationship with Sony Ericsson is a good example of IBM’s commitment to deliver high value services that enable customers to be more efficient and focused on their core business, says John Blackburn, Vice President IBM Global Business Services to Cellular News.

Source: Cellular News via Esato forums

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Posted in corporative, news | No Comments »

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