Sony Ericsson used to be a hugely popular phone maker with some interesting handset designs — sort of like Motorola. But unlike Motorola, it sat and did nothing while Apple created the smartphone frenzy. Perhaps that was a mistake!
Sony Ericsson’s CEO, Bert Nordberg, admits to the WSJ that sticking to candy bar dumbphones while the iPhone made them obsolete was a mistake: “It’s safe to say that Sony Ericsson should have taken the iPhone more seriously when it arrived in 2007.” Yes, it’s probably highly safe to say so — much as AOL should have taken broadband more seriously when it arrived, and horses should have taken cars more seriously when they arrived. But Nordberg’s not giving up: “However, our Android strategy has been successful and the best choice we could have made, considering the growth of the Android platform.” Like the Xperia Play? The best thing about that “Android strategy” was probably the commercials. [WSJ via TechCrunch]