When the economy took a steep nosedive in the fall of 2008, lots of manufacturers and companies announced restructurings and layoffs. One of them was Sony Ericsson, where 4,000 employees left the company or were let go during the downturn. It has been nearly two years since the start of the company’s restructuring, and Sony Ericsson is announcing that it is almost complete. “We are now well positioned for long term growth,” said President Bert Nordberg.
While SE has a line-up of decent smartphones with more on the way, the Xperia X10 and Vivaz failed to make a huge splash while other Android devices have essentially stomped them into the ground. The HTC EVO 4G and Motorola Droid X feature the latest version of Android and have been sold out almost the minute they hit shelves. Samsung’s Galaxy S line of smartphones seem to promise to do equally well, or at least get close.
However, it’s not all bad news for SE as it posted its second quarter results and continues on its path to recovery:
- Sales in the second quarter totaled $2.3 billion (Euro 1.757 billion), a 25 percent increase sequentially and a 4 percent year-over-year.
- Sony Ericsson shipped 11 million phones during the quarter, a 5 percent increase sequentially, but a 20 percent decrease year-over-year (due to the reduction in size of the product portfolio).
- Average selling price increased 19 percent sequentially and 31 percent year-over-year.
Obviously there is still a long way to go as the company continues the last bit of its restructuring, but the point is that Sony Ericsson isn’t going anywhere any time soon and continues to crank out some decent handsets. One of which is the Xperia X10 Mini Pro, which we’ll be reviewing later this week. The smaller version of the X10 features a full QWERTY keyboard and Android 1.6 along with a custom user interface.
Sony Ericsson is now operating with less overhead than it was before, and is still on its target track of reducing operating expenses by $1.1 billion compared to when it began the restructuring. I’m really hoping my once favorite smartphone manufacturer comes back in a really big way.
In the meantime, check out our unboxing of the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro while we get our review ready for you this week.
[Sony Ericsson via mocoNews]
