Sony Ericsson starts making cheap phones in India

A man walks past a mobile service billboard in Mumbai, September 8, 2005. Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said on Wednesday it would have low-cost color screen and music playing handsets made in India through manufacturing agreements with Flextronics and Foxconn.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said on Wednesday it would have low-cost color screen and music playing handsets made in India through manufacturing agreements with Flextronics and Foxconn.

Production in the fast growing Indian mobile phone market will reach 10 million mobile phones by 2009, the five-year-old joint venture between Japanese electronics maker Sony Corp and Swedish telecoms equipment firm Ericsson said in a statement.

Production of 10 million phones would represent around 13 percent of all Sony Ericsson phones sold in 2006.

"In addition to competitive pricing, these phones will offer customized features for the Indian market, such as local content and customized keypads," Sony Ericsson said in a statement.

The world's fourth biggest mobile phone maker, measured in units, has made its mark with premium phones including Cybershot digital cameras and Walkman music players.

Analysts have said it now needs to bring out more low-cost phones, catering to lower income customers in the fast growing emerging markets, to reach its target of becoming the world's number three mobile phone maker.

"Local manufacturing in India will result in improved cost efficiencies and enable us to offer attractive products at even more competitive price points," the company's president, Miles Flint, said.

Sony Ericsson had a fourth-quarter global market share of 8.7 percent, behind Nokia's 35.2 percent, Motorola's 21.9 percent and Samsung's 10.7 percent.

Measured in revenues, Sony Ericsson overtook Samsung in the fourth quarter as the number three phone maker, as a result of its more expensive phones.