Sony has confirmed that from mid-2012, its smartphones will be sold solely under the Sony banner, as the Ericsson moniker will be removed from the company's roster.

This news comes after it had aquired the remaining 50 percent of its joint venture with Swedish company Ericsson for €1.05 billion in October.

Only Sony

"A lot of planning goes into getting the branding right but we will be done by middle of next year," Kristian Tear, executive VP & head of sales & marketing at Sony Ericsson told the Times of India. 

"It will also mean that the marketing and advertising investments will go up. We haven't been as fierce as we were a few years back but we will step it up, refocus and invest more in brand-building in select markets and India is one of those markets."

Tear also highlighted that the aim of the company's smartphone division will now be to become the number one on Android.

"[The] Last eight quarters have been good for us and we are proud of that. We went from focusing only on volumes to value but the big setback was what happened in Japan with the Tsunami, which put us back for this year quite a bit. But we are going in the right direction," Tear added.

[source: The Times of India]