Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications plans to launch about 30 new games on the mainland this year, after forging partnerships with key domestic developers supporting its soon-to-be-launched PlayStation-type smartphone, the Xperia Play.
The company, a joint venture formed in 2001 by Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony and Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson, also aims to bring its other high-performance Xperia models to the business sector.
This consumer-entertainment and corporate strategy helped it become the world's No 1 supplier of smartphones based on the Google-developed Android operating system, a market where it competes with Samsung Electronics, HTC Corp and Lenovo Group on the mainland.
'We want to be active to grow in China because Android [mobile operating system] is getting stronger in the market,' Bert Nordberg, president and chief executive of Sony Ericsson, said yesterday.
'You can't be that [biggest player in Android] if you're not in China and the US.'
The target global share this year for Android, a free operating system that handset makers usually customise, is 25 per cent compared with 15 per cent last year, Nordberg said.