If nothing happens, Sony Ericsson's headquarters will soon be invaded by angry Sony Ericsson fans

Sony Ericsson today announced its Q2 financial results. During the second quarter of 2008 Sony Ericsson achieved break-even results, and once again declared that the market is “proving challenging”. This has to be the third time they’ve come up with those ground-breaking statements. I’m guessing that’s what their “contuined R&D investments” have been used it, as it most certainly wasn’t used for researching and developing anything phone related.
Another ‘highlight’ in Sony Ericsson’s press release about the Q2 financial results is the announcement of Symbian Foundation. To me it seems like this was only added because there was nothing just slightly exciting left for the PR crew to add.

So, let’s get to the results. They’re bad - really bad.

• During the second quarter of the year, Sony Ericsson just managed to ship a total of 24.4 million units; that’s lower than the total amount of shipped units in Q2 2007. YoY change: -2.05 %
• The sales brought in a total of 2,820 million Euro. Once again, significantly lower than last year’s sales. YoY change: -10.35 %
• The gross margin fell from 29.2 % in Q1 to 23.1 % in Q2. YoY change: -28.14 %
• The operating income has turned negative, and is now at -2 million Euro. YoY change: - 100.63 %
• The netto income is now down to 6 Million Euro. YoY change: -97.28 %

Isn’t that just pathetic? Sony Ericsson yet again blames the market for being challenging - did I say that before (?) - and once again don’t think the mid/high-end markets are the ones to go for. Once again, my guess is that they are looking at their own facts and numbers, and found out their mid/high-end devices are simply not popular. I wonder why…

I guess faithful Sony Ericsson owners can start getting acquainted to getting larger and larger amounts of low-end phones.

- We are aligning our operations and resources worldwide to meet an increasingly competitive business environment and to help restore our capability for profitable growth. The measures we are taking are aimed at becoming a faster, more agile and more cost efficient organisation that can continue to create innovative products that excite consumers, says Hideki Komiyama, Sony Ericsson’s President in the press release.

- Our target is to achieve a reduction in operating expenses of Euro 300 million annually, with the full effect expected to appear within a year. We estimate that our restructuring charges will be of the same magnitude as our reduction in operating expenses, and we will incur such charges as our measures are implemented, he continues.

What he fails to mention is that this will mean up to 2,000 Sony Ericsson employees will get sacked. Such a pity.

I sincerely hope this is the kick in the behind Sony Ericsson needs to rise again. If not, then I don’t have any plans of staying with this company.

You can read the full joke over here.

Filed under: Announcement, Corporative, Market, Market share, Videos

Sweden-based Sony Ericsson, the world’s fourth largest cellphone vendor, is in talks to acquire India-based Spice Mobile, reports the Economic Times. Spice Mobile, a BK Modi company, has a range of GSM and CDMA handsets under the Spice brand. The company had announced a sub-$20 phone devoid of a display screen in February at the Mobile World Congress.

Spice Mobile has a market capitalisation of round Rs 177 crore with its shares closing at Rs 22.7 on Thursday on the Bombay Stock Exchange. However, Modi is looking for Rs 80 - 100 per share, which values Spice Mobile at around Rs 700 crore. Modi had last month exited his other telecom entity, Spice Telecom, a carrier operational in two circles of Punjab and Karnataka.

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In partnership with CellPassion.com.

Filed under: Corporative, Market

Sony Ericsson recently selected Swedish mobile games developer and publisher GlobalFun as one of its two official content acquisition partner for the upcoming PlayNow Arena and Fun & Downloads services.

As of now, there are no official statements from Sony Ericsson, but a few from GlobalFun.

- We have since the beginning of our business aimed to provide our customers, of which Sony Ericsson is a highly valued one, with high quality premium content. This appointment serves for us as a proof that our strategy on content acquisition and account management has been and still is the correct one, says Bertil Krumnack, EVP Sales & Business Development at GlobalFun.

Also commenting on the deal was GlobalFun CEO, Marcus Johansson.

The trust that Sony Ericsson is showing us by appointing us as one of two content acquisition partners is very flattering. We will do our very best to exceed the expectations in this area and to continue to grow our mutual business, says Marcus.

In my opinion, Sony Ericsson could easily have picked a better games developer than GlobalFun. Sure, their games are okay, but there are many other developers out there that publish better games. A 5-year contract has been signed to ensure close cooperations between the two companies.

Filed under: Corporative, Fun, Games, News, Upcoming

Whenever Sony Ericsson releases a press release about the market sales and profits in advance of the actual press release with the final quarter results, we know something’s not going that great. And well, Sony Ericsson just released one of those press releases.

It basically states there’ll be market challenges, and that these have impacted Sony Ericsson’s sales and profit in second quarter 2008. Sony Ericsson’s estimated amount of shipped phones in Q2 is at approximately 24 million units, and the average selling price is expected to be at 115 euros. The net income before taxes is estimated to be about break-even. Sad news, indeed.

Sony Ericsson claims that its sales have been negatively affected by the moderating demand of mid/high-end phones, as well as delays of new products shipped during this quarter. What does this mean? More low-end phones for us - yay…!

The final results will be announced on July 18 at 7.30 AM UK time (that’s 8.30 AM CET).

Filed under: Corporative, Market, Market share

We told you back in November 2007, we tell you now: The US of A have much love for Sony Ericsson.

I will just let the chart speak for itself.

You can read more at SE’s US press lounge or at the 2008 U.S. Wireless Mobile Phone Evaluation Study Volume 1 site.

Filed under: Corporative, Market

Sony Ericsson yet again “topped” Greenpeace’s ‘Guide to Greener Electronics’ rankings with a score of 5.1 out of… 10! Can you believe it? With such a relatively low score they actually came in first along with Sony. Next in line was Nokia with a score of 4.8.

Sony Ericsson had topmarks on the chemical thoxic phase, but ranked poor on recycling. Here’s what Greenpeace had to say about Sony Ericsson in the excerpt.

Sony Ericsson is in pole position despite barely scraping past the halfway mark with 5.1. It is the first company to score almost top marks on the chemicals criteria, missing this target by having unreasonably high threshold limits for brominated flame retardants in products that are allegedly BFR-free. All SE products are already PVC-free. SE has already met the challenge of the new criterion on chemicals, by banning antimony, beryllium and phthalates from new models launched since January 2008. The company scores relatively high on energy criteria because all of its products meet and exceed the Energy Star standard. On all other energy issues, it scores badly. Sony Ericsson falls down on e-waste issues scoring badly on all the criteria. It reports a pitiful recycling rate of 1%-13%.

You can download the entire report about Sony Ericsson here.

Filed under: Corporative, Market

It has to be one of the most surprising news these days: The Big 5 coorporate.

Nokia today announced plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own and then contribute the Symbian and S60 software to the Symbian Foundation. Sony Ericsson and Motorola will contribute technology from UIQ, DOCOMO has also indicated its willingness to contribute its MOAP(S) assets. From these contributions, the Foundation will provide a unified platform with common UI framework. A full platform will be available for all Foundation members under a royalty-free license, from the Foundation’s first day of operations.

The annual membership fee is a bargain of 1.500$.

Plans are to get the thing rollin’ on the first half of 2009 with an expected complete framework in 2010.

Make sure you tune in to the live webcast here at 11:00 GMT.

While waiting, have a further look at the press release here and the Symbian Foundation website with the whitepaper here.

Filed under: Announcement, Corporative, Future, Operating platform, UIQ