Product placement: Sony blocks out Apple via Spiderman

A fascinating article here from Business Week which explains how Sony - struggling to build a tiny market share in smart phones - has used product placement to promote its product range (and block Apple) in the latest Spiderman blockbuster.

​Sony might be struggling in the consumer electronics market - but, it is a big player in film distribution. So it makes sense to seek the potential commercial synergies that arise by using product placement to build awareness of its electronic products. The Amazing Spider-Man is distributed by Sony and, surprise surprise, it doesn’t feature any Apple products. Instead, the Sony Xperia mini pro smartphone and Sony’s Tablet S all feature. Not an iPhone or iPad in sight.

Will this kind of promotional activity make a difference for Sony? Recent data suggests that its market share of the US smartphone and tablet market is below 1%. Looks like it has a long way to go…