Revenue and profits up at Sony Ericsson

12-07-2007

by Emmet Ryan

Sony Ericsson saw its profits jump 55 percent year-on-year in its results for the second quarter of 2007.

The results, which were announced on Thursday, saw the group record pretax profts of EUR327 million for the quarter, compared to EUR211 million for the same period in 2006.

The growth in profits reflected strong sales, which were up to EUR3.1 billion for the quarter, compared to EUR2.3 billion a year ago.

Net profits also increased significantly, from EUR143 million in the second quarter of 2006 to EUR220 million this year.

The handset group saw the number of units sold worldwide rise substantially up from 15.7 million for the second quarter of 2006 to 24.9 million in 2007. This included sales of 9 million Walkman phones, a handset range that's proving to be a winner for Sony Ericsson. The average price of units shipped was EUR125, down from EUR145 a year ago.

"Sony Ericsson has continued to capture market share in a more competitive market place with a product offering that addresses a wider consumer audience than ever before. Our financial results for Q2 2007 reflect our direction to build our brand in key imaging, music and multimedia categories with a portfolio that includes more competitively priced phones," said Miles Flint, president of Sony Ericsson.

"We expect the market in 2007 to remain competitive, but with recently announced products such as the flagship Walkman and Cyber-shot models we aim to continue to grow faster than the market."

Sony Ericsson forecasts that the 2007 global handset market will be above 1.1 billion units. The company said it grew its market share in the quarter by around 3 percent compared with the same period last year.