Sony Ericsson's phone shipments fall 43%
updated 03:55 pm EDT, Thu July 16, 2009
Sony Ericsson Q2 2009
Sony Ericsson warned of worsening trouble at the company as it recorded a steep drop in the number of phones shipped this quarter as well as in its financial well being. The company shipped just 13.8 million phones this quarter, dropping 43 percent compared to one year earlier; the number was also a 5 percent shrink from already weak performance in the winter. Accordingly, the company swung from a roughly $8.5 million profit in spring 2008 to a $300.5 million loss in 2009.
The company remained confident that it would hold on to at least 5 percent of the market as it expected the market itself to have shrunk this year due to the poor economy. However, its chief executive Hideki Komiyama admitted the rest of the year would still be "difficult" and that it likely won't start recovering until late this year, when it returns with smartphone-class devices like the Aino and Satio as well as the conventional but gesture-driven Yari.
Most of the company's recent declines have come through a combination of a virtual absence of smartphones as well as a chronic problem with product overlap that has resulted in multiple similar phones that do little to stand out in the market or from each other.
Although not official, the company is also known to be planning its first Android phone and a second Windows Mobile device, the XPERIA X2.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2007
"just"?
they sold "just 13.8 Million" phones? You say that like it was a bad thing. But that number is higher than the number of iPhones Apples sold in its first year. Sure, it's a lower number than before, but that's still a helluva lot of phones!