Stockholm, Sweden — Sales climbed 22 percent in the third quarter at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, hitting $2.5 billion, up from $2 billion in the year-ago period.
Net income for the joint-venture company, combining Sony and Ericsson’s mobile phone manufacturing and sales expertise, reached $125.7 million in the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, compared with $108.7 million in the same three months in 2004. The company said it continued to increase its marketing and research and development investments to support the expansion of its product lineup going forward.
“This has been a good quarter for Sony Ericsson,” said the company, “proving that our strategy of expanding the product portfolio upward into best-in-class imaging, music and 3G products, while increasing the number of more affordable and attractively designed volume models is paying off. We are increasingly benefiting from the opportunities created by the joint venture.”
Mobile phone units shipped in the third quarter increased to 13.8 million, a 29 percent rise over the units shipped year-on-year and a 17 percent increase from the second quarter’s figures.
Sony Ericsson reported it grew faster than the market during the third quarter, with the “popularity of higher-end phones having a positive effect and raising the profile of more affordable, volume models.” Average phone-selling price rose during the quarter, according to the company, reflecting the proportion of higher-end phones entering the product mix.
Sony Ericsson said the global handset market continued to grow faster than expected in the third quarter, and the company is upgrading its global market outlook for 2005 to over 760 million units.
