Tokyo and Stockholm, Sweden – The joint venture mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson colored its third quarter black, following a run of quarterly losses for the two-year-old Japanese-Swedish consumer electronics venture.
Sales for the three months soared 50 percent, hitting $1.5 billion, up from $1 billion in the year-ago period. Net income climbed to $72.7 million, compared with a year-ago loss of $109.1 million.
The improved operating results and continued strong increase in sales were helped by positive market acceptance of new imaging phones, supply chain improvements and increased operating efficiency, said the company.
Sony Ericsson, which recorded units shipments of 7.1 million in the third quarter, a 42 percent increase over the 5 million shipped in the same quarter in 2002, and 6.7 million in the second quarter of 2002, said it expects to be profitable in the second half of 2003.
Volume and sales should grow during the fourth quarter, said the company, but due to an increased proportion of lower priced models in the product mix, it anticipates it may be difficult to sustain the current level of profitability in the final three months of 2003.
Sony Ericsson, formed in the fall of 2001, announced quarterly losses for all periods up to the one ended in September, except for a single quarter, when it broke even.