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Sony Ericsson sees handset sales slide

By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 11:06 AM

Sony Ericsson issues profit warning amid global economic slowdownHard times have gone global. Financial struggles in global economies have apparently started to affect our precious consumer electronics markets. So much so that the world’s fourth largest handset manufacturer has just issued a profit warning due to lacking handset sales in key European markets. Sony Ericsson says that sliding sales of mid- to high-end mobile phones will negatively impact Q1 2008 earnings.

So, in order to stay on track to become the world’s third largest mobile phone manufacturer by 2011, Sony Ericsson will be shifting focus on increasing sales in countries like China and India by increasing its handset portfolio, presumably in the low-end which has strengthened industry leaders’ positions. Sony Ericsson also wants to increase sales in the US.

Analysts point toward the global economic turndown as the biggest cause of Sony Ericsson’s lacking sales. A weaker global economy means consumers are less likely to buy new handsets to replace their old handsets.

And, the financial woes seem to be affecting the industry as a whole. The largest handset manufacturers are somewhat insulated from the rough waters – their strength in emerging markets with low-end handsets seems to be the strategy that will keep them from feeling the financial crunch – a strategy that might be the road to prosperity for Sony Ericsson.

[Via: FT]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • newtype2011

    Crappy high-end phone selection = poor handset sales

    Simple as that.

    …the bad news is that instead of attempting to churn out some good phones, they will simply increase their low-end portfolio. Stupid -_-*

  • Topy

    Well actually i think their phones have been ok just now so lets see if it’s just bad overall quarter for all mobile phone makers(at least so does market think as Nokia dropped a bit after SE released those news).

    Thought i agree their phones haven’t been as good as Nokia’s and people might have seen through SE’s brands like walkman and cybershot that really arent any more anything else than marketing talk.

    New line up seems good, but Nokia’s whole portfolio just seems better.

  • Jones

    I agree why choice a SE phone? When you get so much moore from a Nokia like 5MP Carl Zeiss Camera,Music,Video,Game and GPS phones like N82 or N95 for the same price.And with N-gage , musicstore and all you can share from OVI.

  • Mick

    There are some big problem in SE now even HTC make their phones like xperia. I hope it not be so buggy like p990 :mad: