In the third quarter of 2009, Sony Ericsson earned 49 million euros, or up to $69 million in profits, a great improvement from a loss of €164 million in the year-earlier period. This is the third consecutive quarter that the company has posted net profits after suffering a series of losses.
The phone manufacturing giant earned lower than the expectations of €64 million but the profits are still better than its performance in earlier quarters. The company had total sales of €1.6 billion, which remains almost flat from the previous quarter.
Major downfall came in the number of units shipped as it dropped to 26%, mainly due to the trimming of company's portfolio. Average selling price, or ASP, of its devices dipped to €154 from €160 in the second quarter; the rates showed an improvement from €114 of a year earlier. It also helped the company to post gross margins of up to 30%, double than the year-earlier period and showing a turn to positive of 4%, up from a negative 12% the year-ago quarter.
Xperia X10 and the Vivaz are the two new phone models of the company that were launched after it faced declining sales as Apple Inc., and Google Inc., upped their ante and launched a plethora of high-tech phones. The new phone models of Sony Ericsson run on Google Android operating system.
The company also reaffirmed its earlier forecast of seeing a slight growth in the number of global handset sales in 2011.
Ericsson's shares dipped 1.1% in morning trading session in Stockholm. The company is a joint venture of Japan's Sony Corp., and Sweden's Ericsson AB.
