Sony and Ericsson are in deep discussion about their 10 year old 50: 50 pact, which is to end shortly. Sony is thinking of taking over the entire stake of Ericsson in the mobile phone category which will enable them to compete with Apple Samsung etc.

So far Sony has been dealing in Tablets, games devices and various consumer electronic items, while smartphones are handled by 'Sony-Ericsson'.

An analyst of JP Morgan, Tokyo expressed that the deal would be worthy of not less than
$ 1.3 billion, based on the expected agreement between the two companies, regarding the use of Ericsson's telecom patents. Unifying the hitherto separate products and networks will be beneficial to Sony.

There has not been any comment from Sony or Ericsson.

The joint venture, established in 2001, flourished on account of Walkman music phones and Cybershot camera phones, both Sony brands. But it could not compete with Nokia, Samsung and Apple in the phone market.

Even though at present its smartphone is complete with Android Operating System, its position in the mobile phone ranking is ninth.