This phone serves as an example of “piggybacking” on a brand. Something about the LCD display of a ballerina frolicking in front of what appears to be some sort of European manor in tandem with the ISO 9001 certificate (which I’m assuming is also fake) printed on the handset doesn’t exactly fit Sony’s traditional design approach. I’m interested what lead the manufacturer of this (likely counterfeit) telephone to decide that Sony would be the best brand to adopt as their own – why Sony? Also, what was the thinking behind the need to adopt a better-recognized brand instead of creating their own? Did they ever consider what would happen if they ended up being really successful and selling lots of phones (lots of, “Sony” phones)? Did they see anything ethically wrong with doing this? Seeing this, do you think a Sony employee would be more outraged at the blatant theft of their brand, or optimistic that the purchasing (and hopefully enjoyment) of this telephone would drive sales of other Sony products?

Also, I’d love it if someone could post proof that this model of phone was an authentic Sony product, making me completely lose any shred of credibility I may have ever had.