Due to the European telecom crisis in the beginning of the 2000s,
Ericsson Mobile Communications became unprofitable, and was split in two parts: one part was merged with the mobile division of
Sony and formed
Sony Ericsson, aimed at developing mobile terminals for the consumer market. At the same time, the other part of Ericsson Mobile Communications formed Ericsson Mobile Platforms. Some of their customers were
Flextronics,
HTC,
LG Electronics,
NEC,
Sagem,
Sharp,
Amoi and of course Sony Ericsson. The main focus of the company was around the development of a mobile platform for the third generation of mobile telephony,
UMTS. At the end of 2004
Ericsson Technology Licensing was de-established, and select parts of that company was folded into Ericsson Mobile Platforms. October 3, 2008 the company showcased a handheld prototype for
LTE (fourth generation mobile telephony). At this time, the company stated that they estimated to have the technology available for the market around the year 2011. The company existed for 8 years, but February 12, 2009 Ericsson announced that
Ericsson Mobile Platforms would be merged with the mobile platform company of
STMicroelectronics,
ST-NXP Wireless, to create a 50/50 joint venture owned by Ericsson and STMicroelectronics called
ST-Ericsson. This joint venture collapsed in 2013 and remaining activities can be found in
Ericsson Modems and
STMicroelectronics. Ericsson Mobile Platform disappeared as a legal entity early 2009. ==Platforms==