Q1 highlights at Sony Ericsson were a 115% year-on-year increase in pretax profits (€151m) with strong growth through the whole portfolio. The company shipped 13.3m phones in the quarter (a year ago it was 9.4m) and recorded total sales 55% up at nearly €2bn.
Sony Ericsson says its prior R&D investment meant that it could announce more new products during Q1 than in previous years, and they tended to be more valuable – average selling price was €149, up 4%.
Highlighting the success of the Walkman brand, Sony Ericsson president Miles Flint said the company has sold 5.5m Walkman phones since
mid-August.
Growth in the global handset market continued to outpace earlier expectations, and Sony Ericsson is now forecasting the global market for 2006 to be over 900m million units; previously it was predicting 780m.