We can quietly say that the first three months weren't favorable for Sony Ericsson. During the first quarter the company sold 22.3 million devices, which is although 2% more than the 21.9 million phones last year, but it's a serious fallback compared to the 30.8 million devices sold last quarter. Revenues from sales have unambiguously decreased. While in the first quarter of 2007 they had a 2925 million and at the end of the year a 3711 million euro income from sales, this value has decreased to 2702 million euros this quarter. Income before taxes is even worse. Compared to the same period last year (362 million euros) they have a 47% drop (193 million), but this is really nothing compared to the record of 501 million euros income before taxes from the previous quarter. The company explains the low income with the slowing market growth in mid-to-high end phones, which is accompanied by a decrease in the average sales price. ASP has been 134 euros in Q1 2007, which decreased to 121 euros by this year. The company has announced in March, that due to an increase in costs of research and development, their net income is expected do be lower. A significant part of the costs is due to the new, Windows Mobile-based Xperia series, the first of these device being expected to become available in the second half of this year.
Translated by Szaszati
