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

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

“I (SE) giant leaps”

In an interview with Reuters, Sony Ericsson’s head of global marketing, James Marshall, said that Sony Ericsson sees a growing demand in mobile phones in the second quarter and second half of this year. He also goes to explain the economic downturns during the first quarter of the year.

- We had a slightly slower start to the year due to some economic downturn in Western Europe and due to overstocking in channels in Q4, which meant inventories were higher going into 2008. That was a short-term issue, said James Marshall in an interview with Reuters.

What’s good, though, is that it seems Sony Ericsson’s new strategy of manufacturing low/mid-tier phones, especially for the entry-level markets, seems to be going by plan, and Sony Ericsson remains optimistic about their goal of gaining a 10 percent market growth in 2008.

- Projections for this quarter and the second-half of 2008 looks strong — that’s why we can keep the 10 percent growth projections, Marshall told Reuters.

For more details on Sony Ericsson’s rather massive profits dip in the first quarter of 2008, you can read the official press release - you can find it here.

Via: Reuters

Filed under: Article, Corporative, Interview, Market share

Sony Ericsson CEO Dick Komiyama today announced the company’s Q1 financial results in the live webcast earlier this morning (press release issued here).

I’m in a bit of a hurry here, so I’ll leave you with the highlights and the link, and hopefully I’ll get round at editing the post later tonight. In short, this quarter of the year wasn’t that good for Sony Ericsson, with a lower amount of sold phones than LG (22 million vs 24 million).

Q1 Highlights:

• Year-on-year volume growth of 2%
• Income before taxes at higher end of forecast
• R&D investment continues to expand portfolio and addressable market
• New sub-brand XPERIA^TM added to portfolio

Filed under: Corporative, Market, Market share

Sony Ericsson today announced that the moderating sales growth of mobile phones is expected to have negatively affected Sony Ericsson’s sales in Q1 this year. It appears there is a slow market growth in the mid to high-end markets, which is affecting Sony Ericsson in a negative way.

- As discussed during our fourth quarter 2007 Media and Analyst Call, the market is proving to be challenging. This has been more pronounced in the mid-to-high end replacement sector of the market in Europe, where Sony Ericsson has stronger than average market share, says Dick Komiyama, President of SEMC in a press release. For the last year, Sony Ericsson has been focused on expanding the breadth of its portfolio and developing its presence in new markets to lessen its historic reliance on the European high-end sector for growth. This strategy will continue, and our objective remains to become a top three player globally by 2011. As part of this strategy, we have announced fifteen new phones and introduced a new platform to the portfolio, Windows Mobile®, this year. We expect to start seeing a positive effect from these announcements during the second half of 2008, he continues.

At this moment, Sony Ericsson is expecting to have shipped a total of 22 million units in the first quarter of 2008 with an expected average selling price at 120 euros. Net sales are expected to be 150 - 200 million euros compared to 362 million euros the year before that. The low income is due to increased R&D in Sony Ericsson’s future strategy to meet growth ambitions. Dick Komiyama is still confident that Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications will be a top 3 player in 2011.

Final first quarter results are planned to be announced on April 21st.

Filed under: Corporative, Market share

Sony Ericsson today released their results for the fourth quarter and whole year 2007.

The most impressive number first: Sony Ericsson sold over 100 million handsets in 2007 and have an expected market share of a little over 9 percent!

Other highlights as they follow:

Q4 Highlights:

• 18% increase in volume year-on-year
• Continued market share gains and profitable growth
• Continued investment for the future

2007 Highlights:

• Margins remain strong as company shifts to broader portfolio
• Unit growth underpinned by increased sales of lower priced phones
• 145 million music enabled phones sold to date, of which 57 million were Walkman® phones – maintaining leadership in music

You can find all interesting and not-sooo-interesting facts in the Press Release.

The bonus picture from this morning’s webcast can be seen after the jump. Continue reading “Q4 results & 2007 highlights (bonus: Announcement sheet)”

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

I’m in a bit of a rush, so here goes parts of the press release.

The Sony Ericsson 4th Quarter 2007 and Full Year 2007 financial results will be announced on Wednesday, 16 January, 07.30am UK time (GMT). This announcement will be followed by a conference call with the media and analysts at 08:30am UK time (GMT). Please find below a more detailed breakdown of the corresponding times in other regions and numbers to call.

A live webcast of the conference call will be available at: http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/investors/
Or please click here to join the webcast directly: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-eventDetails&c=181700&eventID=1737508
The archived webcast will be available approximately one hour after the completion of the conference call.

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