New President for Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson has selected a new president for the joint venture. Coming over from the Ericsson side of the equation, 53 year old Bert Nordberg said that he wants to bring some new life into the firm, adding new phones equipped with the latest software and applications. The new president has 14 years under his belt at Ericsson which includes experience working in Silicon Valley where he has been the head of the Swedish company's software development work since 2008. "We need to improve the product design and development processes and weneed a different product portfolio to reflect what customers are askingfor,”  said Nordberg, "Andwe definitely need to strengthen our offering in the mobile Internetsegment.”

Both Sony and Ericsson each own 50% of Sony Ericsson and the joint venture has lost the equivalent of $1 Billion dollars since July 2008 while global market share has tumbled to 5.1% since June. According to research firm Strategy Analytics, it is the smallest of the major cellphone manufacturers trailing Nokia, Samsung, LG and Motorola. Nordberg dismissed reports that Ericsson was going to leave the joint venture saying that in the 8 years that Sony Ericsson has been in business, it has produced profits equal to $2.3 billion dollars for the Swedish firm alone.

Some interesting models are going to be launched soon by Sony Ericsson including the Satio with a 12.1MP camera and the "Rachael" which is a Android powered handset equipped with the 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, and an 8MP camera. This device will be considered the Xperia X3 while the Xperia X2 is expected to be a proper sequel to the maligned Xperia X1 with its panel interface. The X2 will have a bigger 3.5 inch OLED display, be powered by a custom version of the Windows Mobile 6.5 OS and offer a camera with 8.1MP.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Preliminary Specifications
Sony Ericsson Rachael Preliminary Specifications
Sony Ericsson Satio Specifications | Preview

source: NYTimes