The days of Sony and Sony Ericsson will now just by “Sony”. The consumer electronics giant has announced that they have succeeded in acquired the necessary regulatory approval to go ahead with a $1.45 billion buyout of Ericsson’s 50% share in the Sony Ericsson venture. Sony CEO Howard Stringer said the acquisition would allow (Sony) to “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”.
We certainly hope the “speed” at which Sony can bring new phones to market while also providing a healthy amount of support for older devices by way of software update is handled better than when the two were separate. At least in regards to Android devices, Sony’s handsets were never all that great if the latest Android OS versions was of any importance.
The acquisition should also give Sony a loaded suite of patents with which to protect itself from the sue first/innovate later mantra that’s taken the consumer electronics world by storm over the last couple of years. On that note, it’ll be interesting to see how Sony competes with not only other Android manufacturers — or whether or not they explore Windows Phone 7 — but also competitors such as Apple, RIM, and if their ducks every get aligned, HP.
