Sony Ericsson to make mobile phones in India
524268
(InfoWorld) - Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications will get its GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phones made in India by contract manufacturers, starting with entry-level color phones and mid-level phones with music. Annual production of its phones in the country is to reach 10 million by 2009, Sony Ericsson said on Wednesday. The phones will be made by the local operations of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which uses the brand name Foxconn, and Flextronics. These companies already make phones for Sony Ericsson in other locations. About two-thirds of Sony Ericsson's phone production worldwide is met by contract manufacturers, Miles Flint, president of Sony Ericsson told reporters in Chennai. Flextronics will start producing Sony Ericsson phones in the second quarter, with Foxconn beginning manufacturing about two to three months later. Sony Ericsson joins a number of mobile manufacturers,Â including Nokia, that are manufacturing in India or contracting Indian manufacturers, to meet the countryâs booming demand for mobile phones. India's largest telecommunications service provider, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam, insists on local manufacture of equipment it procures. Making the phones in India will help Sony Ericsson reduce costs, and offer handsets at a lower price, the company said. The phones will offer customized features for the Indian market, such as local content and customized keypads. India isÂ adding over 6 million mobile phone subscribersÂ each month. The number of wireless subscribers grew 97 percent from 75.94 million at the end of December 2005 to 149.5 million subscribers at the end of last December, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in Delhi.
493350
(InfoWorld) - Indiaâs mobile handset production is growing fast, fueled by rapid growth in the number of mobile subscribers in the country. India produced nearly 31 million mobile phones last year, at a value of about US$5 billion, according to a report by Gartner Inc. The research firm expects production volumes to reach nearly 95 million, and to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25 percent between 2006 and 2011. Growth in handset production in India this year, at 68 percent by units and 65 percent by value, is forecast to be the highest in the Asia-Pacific region, Gartner said. Mobile phone manufacturing was the largest contributor to the country's overall electronics production revenue last year, and to the total available market (TAM) for semiconductors, Gartner said. Indiaâs mobile market is booming. The country added 6.57 million mobile subscribers in May this year, taking the total number of subscribers to 178 million, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in Delhi. The country added 6.11 million new mobile subscribers in April. A number of multinational handset makers, including Nokia Corp., have set up manufacturing facilities in India. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications A.B. is outsourcing mobile phone manufacturing to the operations in Chennai of Flextronics Corp. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd, which uses the brand name Foxconn. The decision by these vendors to make phones locally was also influenced by the decision of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), a large government-owned services provider, to insist on local manufacture by its suppliers. While the top five handset makers worldwide will retain a major share of production volume, local manufacturers are expected to capture up to a fifth of India's overall mobile phone production volume by the end of 2011, Gartner said. Growing demand for low-cost and ultra-low-cost mobile phones, and the need for EMS (electronics manufacturing services) vendors to reduce their revenue exposure to large multinational vendors, will contribute to the growth of local-brand mobile phones in the Indian market, it added. Reliance Communications Ltd., a large Indian services provider, already offers its own brand mobile phones, called the Classic range. The products are currently being customized and made by contract manufacturers outside India, a company spokesman said Monday. A low-cost model launched by Reliance at about US$19 in May sold one million units in the first week, he added. The spokesman did not however comment on whether Reliance had plans to move manufacturing to India.
510241
Sony Ericsson unveiled eight new phones Tuesday, ranging in price and functionality.
728264
World number four mobile producer  Sony Ericsson   said on Tuesday it would  launch eight new phones, four of which would be at the low end  of the price-scale.
608478
Sony Ericsson today announced the launch of its latest 3G phone for Vodafone&#39;s 3G network, the V800. Not only does it look great, but the V800 is packed with all the goodies we would expect from a top end 3G phone.
73216
Sony Ericsson has filed a U.S. patent  application for a mobile device with video game features, but  said on Monday it is not poised to launch a phone based on its  PlayStation Portable (PSP) video game brand.
719802
The wait for Sony Ericsson's next generation SmartPhone the P990i is finally over with the phone now available across the UAE.
761600
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB will launch late Thursday in Berlin six new phones, including a high-end Walkman-branded handset with around 9G bytes of internal Flash memory, according to a company spokeswoman.
537147
(InfoWorld) - Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson and the development fund of the GSM Association (GSMA), which represents the interests of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) operators, have started a pilot project to develop biofuels to power rural India's wireless networks. A similar pilotÂ to the one in India is currently being run by Ericsson and GSMA in Lagos, Nigeria, with the MTN Group, a service provider with operations in Africa and the Middle East. In India, Ericsson and GSMA are partnering with a large local operator, Idea Cellular. India has large rural areas that lack electricity connections or have an inadequate power supply, which is likely to be a bottleneck for mobile operators planning to expand their coverage to the countryside, said P. Balaji, head of marketing and strategy at Ericsson India, on Thursday. Instead, users in rural areas in India and elsewhere in the world have to choose between using biofuel or fossil fuels to power their generators. Using biofuels is environmentally friendly as it reduces carbon-dioxide emissions by between 70 percent to 80 percent, Balaji said. Biomass for biofuel can be locally produced, providing employment in rural areas, he added. Ericsson and GSMA are aiming to create an ecosystem consisting of mobile services operators, local farmers who will grow the crops for biofuel and local entrepreneurs who will generate the biofuel for the wireless base stations, using converter technology developed by Ericsson and the GSMA. Biofuel will currently provide only marginal savings to an operator, but the benefit is likely to increase as biofuel is more widely adopted, while the cost of fossil fuels rises, Balaji said. Using biofuel will also translate into savings on logistics and transportation of diesel, he added. India has been adding over 6 million mobile subscribers each month, and many operators are targeting the countryâs underserved rural markets as the next big revenue opportunity. In India, Ericsson and the GSMA have identified nonedible plant-based fuels such as cotton seeds and jatropha, a plant grown in the region. In the second phase of the pilot in Pune in Maharashtra state, the two organizations and Idea Cellular are setting up a supplyÂ chainÂ usingÂ locallyÂ grown crops to produce biofuel to power betweenÂ five and 10 base stations in the region. The goal is to have these base stations powered by cotton or jatropha by the middle of this year.
337851
Responding to demand for ultra-thin designs, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB has announced a new Walkman music phone-- its slimmest handset yet. The product is one of several announced Tuesday ahead of the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona next week.
715282
By Chandra Devi  THE second half of the year will see Sony Ericsson making available more enhanced mobile phones to cater to all levels of users.
312754
Sony Ericsson on Sunday announced a new premium handset aimed at capturing the Web convergence market, blending multimedia with mobile Web communication in its first product using Microsoft Corp.'s operating system.
324791
World number four mobile phone maker   Sony Ericsson plans further to develop its PlayNow service,   currently used for downloading ring tones, a spokesman for the   Japanese-Swedish group said on Wednesday.
595931
Sony Ericsson will launch late Thursday in Berlin six new phones, including a high-end Walkman-branded handset with around 9GB of internal Flash memory, according to a company spokeswoman.
325494
Nokia, the world's top mobile phone maker, said on Wednesday it plans to invest in a new handset plant in India to meet booming demand in the world's fastest-growing major wireless market.
636960
Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony  Ericsson said on Tuesday it expects slower growth in the global  handset market next year.
115657
Swedish-Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson (6758.T)(ERICb.ST) will launch digital Walkman phones in March to better tap into the mobile music market, seen as a top growth area for 2005, its head said on Monday.