Sony Ericsson Americas HQ Officially Opens In Atlanta

It’s been a long road for Sony Ericsson in the last few years, but you couldn’t tell at the official introduction of their new Americas HQ in Atlanta yesterday. SE held an exclusive event with Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, Sony Ericsson worldwide CEO Bert Nordberg, Sony Ericsson USA President Anderson Teixeira, and others for a ribbon cutting ceremony introducing the new location. While SE has faced numerous layoffs in recent times, loss in profits and so forth, their improved strategy and current portfolio signal a company that is on a turnaround. SE is becoming a robust, reformed company that is playing a pretty great hand this generation and has some killer prospects for the future.

The building that houses the new headquarters is simply outstanding in appearance. It’s the shared Terminus 200 building in Buckhead, which is north of Atlanta and coincidentally a place where I grew up. I’m quite jealous of their new location, because it is next to my favorite place to eat breakfast, the Flying Biscuit and several other interesting restaurants. When I arrived, got on the elevator and it opened, I knew something was going to be unique about this place as the main sign at the reception desk is so bold and green.

The whole place had a Sony Ericsson marketing feel with product demo kiosks, unique European styling, and giant motivational phrases and sentences on the windows. Bold, expressive colors were all over the place, and the furniture which had exotic shapes and appearances. I really liked the atmosphere, and even noticed a couple of Sony BRAVIA TV’s, PS3, etc. You can see more of the new headquarters and the interior of the headquarters further in the video below we created of the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue spoke to the crowd and thanked Sony Ericsson for choosing Atlanta as its new Americas home. Perdue went on to say that Sony Ericsson is a “great, visionary company” and “..we’re delighted we look forward to not only welcoming you, but to grow and help Sony Ericsson grow in a way for good business.” He concluded that Atlanta was “honored you recognize that the business climate here is friendly” and boasted Atlanta has “connectivity that is unparalleled.”

Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg said about choosing Atlanta as its new home, “To us it’s been quite the easy decision; we wanted to find the optimal place where we can manage the Americas region. A place with the perfect infrastructure where its easy to access our customers and employees in Latin America.” He later went on to say that “I hope that you will get as well known for Sony Ericsson as you are for CNN.”

Sonny Perdue replied to a chuckle, “We are beginning to call Atlanta the headquarters for headquarters.”

Bert Nordberg later presented Sonny Perdue with a XPERIA X10 and a Sony Ericsson notebook, and said “this is for the unwritten chapters in our history.”

It was a good event. I could tell that it was important for everyone in the company to get together. And believe it or not, I think in some ways the mood indicated SE has has become much more focused and capable of capturing the lead in Android sales. In the last several years, there have been several issues with the company strategy and the notion of Sony Ericsson being at the top of anything was hard to believe.

I sat down with Anderson Teixeria, President of Sony Ericsson USA (left, photo from earlier this year) and discussed with him several questions that were on my mind as of late. Teixeira, who has been with the company since it begun in 2001, has overall responsibility for Sony Ericsson’s sales and marketing within the Americas Region, and reports directly to Sony Ericsson’s President and CEO, Bert Nordberg.

I queried Teixeira about the Engadget rumor of the upcoming Sony Ericsson PlayStation phone, and he gave me a bit of a deflection with words about how Sony Ericsson is a joint 50/50 company with Sony and so forth. I wasn’t expecting any confirmation or anything of that sort, but he seemed humbled by the question.

Towards the end of our conversation I had also noted that the official Sony Ericsson Product Launch blog is littered with comments from frustrated users who are tired of waiting for Android upgrades, as many of the SE devices that are currently available have firmware 1.6. Teixeira stressed that having the latest vanilla firmware wasn’t priority in Sony Ericsson’s strategy, but rather having rich user experiences. He noted that one of the strengths of Sony Ericsson phones is the custom software that styles the experience and adds compelling functionality, such as Timescape for communication, Mediascape for media playback and organization, and other touches they integrate into their phones. They have also added updates to enable some of the most requested features, like Exchange, and other benefits are coming. A good example of this is the ability to record HD video in a future firmware update for the XPERIA X10.

I really tried to stress the importance of maintaining Sony Ericsson’s unique style and software add-ons as a key strategy, but I also mentioned the importance of having the latest Android firmware on the phones quickly as possible. Having Android firmware 1.6 on a phone in late 2010, no matter how you cut it, is something that turns away some consumers because its so old now. It’s something that turns consumers away before they even attempt to go out and try the phone. I hope that the SE will not make this mistake again in future products, as they must recognize it will limit their opportunity to succeed.