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Flextronics, Foxconn are its contract manufacturers; first handset to be out in June

CONTRACT MANUFACTURING: Mr Dayanidhi Maran (right), Minister for Communications and Information Technology, and Mr Miles Flint, President, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, at a press conference in Chennai on Wednesday. - Bijoy Ghosh

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Chennai Jan. 31 Sony Ericsson will manufacture mobile phones at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, through its global outsourcing manufacturing partners, Flextronics and Foxconn.

Flextronics has a facility at Sriperumbudur and the construction of Foxconn's is progressing.

The first "Made in India" Sony Ericsson phone would be out in June. Annual production capacity for the company in India is expected to reach 10 million by 2009, according to Mr Miles Flint, President, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, a 50:50 joint venture of Sony Corporation and Ericsson AB.

Declining to give the split in manufacturing between the two contract manufacturers, Mr Flint said the company's relationship with Flextronics was longer than that with Foxconn. Sony Ericsson would provide the designs and the two partners would manufacture the handsets.

In India, Sony Ericsson would focus only on GSM phones. Other than Japan, the company does not contemplate entry into CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) markets, he told newspersons in the presence of Mr Dayanidhi Maran, Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

Localisation

Initially, the focus would be to manufacture basic colour phones and mid-level music-enabled phones for the domestic market. In addition to competitive pricing, the phones manufactured at Sriperumbudur would offer features such as local content and customised keypads, he said.

According to Mr Flint, Sony Ericsson is amongst the top three GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) handset players in India. As of 2006-end, it had around 9 per cent market share compared with 3 per cent in 2003. With a GSM subscriber base of 105.4 million, India is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world and forms a priority growth market for Sony Ericsson worldwide, he said.

Mr Maran said that with the entry of Sony Ericsson, the world's top five mobile players (Nokia, Samsung, LG and Motorola) would have handset manufacturing units in India.

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Sony Ericsson to make mobiles near Chennai

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