Editorial: Sony Wants to Become a Top Android Handset Maker. Can They Do It?

Sony Ericsson finally got into the Android handset race mid 2010 and its been a bumpy ride for the two company partnership ever sense. Though they offer a few models, starting with the current flagship Xperia X10, followed by the Xperia X10 mini and Xperia X10 Mini Pro, Sony has been unable to gain much traction within the cellphone world (though to be fair to them, the company currently claims that they have 17% of the Android market in Europe). Some might point towards the fact that its been hard to find their devices out of few Sony Style stores and now Best Buy promotion. Other might think that the problem has been with the lackluster Android support that we have chronicled on this site with the Xperia X10 finally getting Android 2.1 in late December, months after devices like the Droid X, X2 and HTC Evo had them. Still, Sony Ericsson has been bullish on its prospects and the company has gone on record, stating that it wants to be the top Android handset provider. Can they do it? Currently, I say no.

My arguments for why Sony Ericsson cannot compete with rivals HTC, Motorola and Samsung is beyond their poor start into the Android market. With the 2011 lineup, Sony already had the current Xperia X10 line which has finally a current modern Android OS and their upcoming Xperia Arc is packed with the latest, Android 2.3 and comes with some amazing specs and even more beautiful screen but still, I don’t believe the company can do it. Why? Because Sony doesn’t have the cash. Regular readers of this site will be familiar with the rest of this articles tone but Sony simply doesn’t advertise. Sony is a company who has such a huge array of products and they have fallen behind on many of the categories and this has nothing to do with the quality of their products. Instead, companies like Samsung can focus more televisions, while Canon and Nikon focus on their camera offerings and Apple and Motorola focus on the mobile world. With Sony competing in every market, they simply don’t advertise enough to gain the customers attention and sales tractions. Instead a company like Motorola can run adds continuously on the Droid and Droid X. This situation is made worse by the fact that Sony doesn’t currently have many profitable and high volume divisions. The PlayStation brand has been in the Red for the last couple of years, due to the high cost of the PlayStation 3 and is now only breaking even and maybe making a few dollars per console where a company like Apple is famously known for having an almost 50% profit margin on most of it’s products. Then you have Microsoft who can spend $500 million on the promotion of a singular product and you see the battle Sony has.

As a company, Sony simply does not advertise. Sure recently you might have seen an up tic in PlayStation 3 promotions and I applaud them for that but when was the last time you saw a Bravia, Cybershot or VAIO commercial, let alone a Sony Ericsson commercial. Instead to most consumers out there, Droid and to a lesser extend, HTC; are names currently synonymous  with Android phones. Those of you reading might say, well yea, I’ve heard of the Xperia lineup or saw it on an Engadget post but that’s the wrong market. As much as we, the tech community and online community would like to feel empowered, the truth is that we don’t represent the over all consumer. Next time you see your girlfriend, co-worker or family member, ask them if they have heard of a new phone, or any phone for that matter from Sony Ericsson, let alone the Xperia X10. Chances are, they haven’t, but then ask them if they have heard of the Droid and changes are, they will say something like “drrroooidddddd”, so famously in every Motorola commercial.

In todays market, much like politics, it simply doesn’t matter if you make the best product. Instead, many times it boils down to how loud you can yell and in a crowded market like the Android community with soon, your dishwasher being powered by it, Sony simply doesn’t have the vocal cords to come out ahead.

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