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View Full Version : Sony Ericsson feels margins pinch



Ben
23rd October 2007, 12:32 PM
A bit of Sony Ericsson news. Despite their constant bubble of new handsets, it feels like things have been a little slow of late. Perhaps that's because I've been focussing on the high end...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/17/sony_ericsson_profits/


Sony Ericsson earned $380m in its third quarter, reflecting the first results of its recent push into low and mid-tier devices. The manufacturer shipped 25.9 million units, up by one million from the previous quarter and by six million on a year earlier, giving the joint venture nine per cent of the global cellphone market, a valuable boost of one per cent. However, the impact on margins was clear, and the company saw profits decline by 11 per cent year-on-year. Its average selling price per device has steadily fallen from $209 a year ago to $171 at the quarter's close, although this remains well above the industry average.

I think it's a shame they're not doing a better job of Cybershot at the high end. I'm sure the K850i is a great camera phone, but it looks distinctly average. Meanwhile, there are some Walkman stunners, but many are mid range and I'm still not sure how the W910i is going to be received.

Hands0n
23rd October 2007, 08:08 PM
Sony need to learn something from Apple. Marketing, marketing and marketing. Its no use producing good stuff, they have got to get it in the face of the punters. Shame there is no one with Mr Jobs' charisma working for Sony.

gorilla
25th October 2007, 10:16 AM
Have to agree. My mates who have SE's love their ease of use, while I can't believe they can't do this and that. I just think every phone today should be a smartphone. The trouble with SE is that they're in a very competitive market and they really don't have that one big handset. Nokia have had the N95 this year and Apple have the iphone. SE need to reproduce that hype to compete. There are plenty of faults with both the N95 and the iphone yet they will ship by the bucket load.