Sony Ericsson Slightly Improves From Q2, But Will Make Nothing but Smartphones Beginning 2012
Sony Ericsson have posted their financial results for Q3 2011 and, at first glance, things don’t look entirely too pretty. Sony Ericsson generated €1.59 billion in revenue over the quarter. This is a drop from €1.6 billion in the same quarter last year, but not a big enough drop to raise serious concerns. In fact, this is a pretty good improvement over last quarter’s €1.19 billion.
Sony Ericsson posted net income of negative €50 billion, a trend that hasn’t seemed to improve over the quarters. This same time last year, Sony Ericsson enjoyed €49 million, but we all know how quickly things can change in this industry.
Following the above trends, unit sales (includes anything Sony Ericsson makes) are up to 9.5 million, a decline from last year’s 10.4 million but an improvement to last quarter’s 7.6.
So far, the Xperia line of smartphones has been their biggest source of overall revenue, bringing in 80% of the flow. 22 million have been shipped to date, according to Sony Ericsson.
CEO Bert Nordberg has mentioned that they will be shifting focus entirely to smartphone production in 2011. We imagine they want to streamline their business in order to help their dire situation, though another possibility could be that this is due to a rumored transaction set to take place where Sony would by Sony Ericsson’s mobile half of their partnership with Ericsson in order to add smartphones to their portfolio. In any case, these are drastic actions from Sony Ericsson and it clearly shows their sense of urgency in a worsening situation.