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Sony Ericsson Slips
(23 Apr 2008, BWCS Staff)Swedish-Japanese joint venture Sony Ericsson Mobile has reported a 47% drop in its first quarter profits, compared to the same period in 2007. However, the results were slightly better than many market analysts had been predicting. For the first three months of 2008 the handset maker announced pre-tax profits of euros 193 million. This was pretty much in line with its earlier warning that profits would slip to somewhere in the range of euros 150 million to euros 200 million.
The group announced that sales of its mobile phones had brought in euros 2.7 billion during the quarter, down 8% compared to the same period last year. Largely this appears to be due to the lower average selling price of a Sony Ericsson phone, which has dropped from an average of euros 134 million in the first quarter of 2007 to euros 120 million this year.
Sony Ericsson's announcement followed a spate of recent warnings of a slowing in the mobile handset market. Earlier this month market leader, Nokia, said its first-quarter profit was below market expectations and more worryingly spoke of a slowdown in the global handset market this year. On the other hand, Korean giant LG Electronics said last week that sales of its phones had leapt by 54% quarter-on-quarter and some analysts believe that it may now have over-taken Sony Ericsson as the fourth largest shipper of mobile phones.
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