Sony Ericsson, the world's fifth-biggest mobile phone maker, said on Wednesday it had a record fourth quarter and reported profits ahead of forecasts on the back of demand for handsets with cameras and music players.
The firm, owned by Sweden's Ericsson and Japan's Sony, expected global handset sales to rise 10 percent in 2006 from an estimated 780 million phones in 2005 and to be able to maintain profit margins.
"The fourth quarter witnessed very strong sequential market growth which Sony Ericsson matched, resulting in a record quarter in terms of volume, sales and net income," it said. The quarter before it struggled to meet booming demand.
Company president Miles Flint told Reuters that his company would continue to focus on camera and music models.
Business was buoyed throughout the second half of 2005 by sales of a high-resolution 2-megapixel camera phone and the Walkman phone, based on Sony's brand of portable music players.
Fourth-quarter pretax profit rose to 206 million euros (US$249 million), up from 140 million a year ago and ahead of the average forecast of 173 million in a Reuters poll.
The profit for the year was 514 million euros, up from 486 million in 2004.
Sony Ericsson's sales rose to 16.1 million handsets in the fourth quarter, up from 13.8 million in the previous quarter and 12.6 million in the final three months of 2004. The 28 percent increase was similar to its bigger rival Samsung.
The group's Q4 operating profit margin came in at around 9 percent and Flint said he expected to sustain such levels.
The firm's average selling price per phone was 143.5 euros in the three months, down from 149 euros in the third quarter, while its market share was steady at around 7 percent.
It said it had sold 3 million Walkman handsets and plans to produce a high-speed 3G version of the phone.
Flint told a news conference that his forecast of growth in the market of 10 percent this year was a preliminary estimate, but the figure was in line with one from bigger rival Samsung Electronics last week.
Products in the pipeline
Flint said the group would focus on producing more phones with cameras and extending the Walkman line. He told Reuters new product anouncements would come soon, particularly around the time of a big telecoms conference in Barcelona in March.
Further out, he saw television on mobile phones becoming popular in two years or so. "It will be 2007 or 2008," he said.
Issues to be solved were how to package TV for phones, such as making edited higlights or shorter versions of popular shows.
He said he aimed to make mobile TV as familiar as possible. "On camera phones we spent a lot of time on how to replace the experience of film camera on mobile phones," he added.
Sony Ericsson's fifth place in the market leaves it behind South Korea's LG Electronics and Samsung, US group Motorola and market leader Nokia.
Motorola, whose slimline RAZR phone has proved popular among consumers, is due to report its fourth-quarter results next week, while Nokia reports on 26 January.
Stockholm-based Ohman analyst Helena Nordman-Knutson said Sony Ericsson was set for a steady 2006 amid a sector that was faced with strong competitive challenges.
"A combination of Ericsson's technology and Sony's expertise in music and imaging creates an attractive offer," she said.
The firm, owned by Sweden's Ericsson and Japan's Sony, expected global handset sales to rise 10 percent in 2006 from an estimated 780 million phones in 2005 and to be able to maintain profit margins.
"The fourth quarter witnessed very strong sequential market growth which Sony Ericsson matched, resulting in a record quarter in terms of volume, sales and net income," it said. The quarter before it struggled to meet booming demand.
Company president Miles Flint told Reuters that his company would continue to focus on camera and music models.
Business was buoyed throughout the second half of 2005 by sales of a high-resolution 2-megapixel camera phone and the Walkman phone, based on Sony's brand of portable music players.
Fourth-quarter pretax profit rose to 206 million euros (US$249 million), up from 140 million a year ago and ahead of the average forecast of 173 million in a Reuters poll.
The profit for the year was 514 million euros, up from 486 million in 2004.
Sony Ericsson's sales rose to 16.1 million handsets in the fourth quarter, up from 13.8 million in the previous quarter and 12.6 million in the final three months of 2004. The 28 percent increase was similar to its bigger rival Samsung.
The group's Q4 operating profit margin came in at around 9 percent and Flint said he expected to sustain such levels.
The firm's average selling price per phone was 143.5 euros in the three months, down from 149 euros in the third quarter, while its market share was steady at around 7 percent.
It said it had sold 3 million Walkman handsets and plans to produce a high-speed 3G version of the phone.
Flint told a news conference that his forecast of growth in the market of 10 percent this year was a preliminary estimate, but the figure was in line with one from bigger rival Samsung Electronics last week.
Products in the pipeline
Flint said the group would focus on producing more phones with cameras and extending the Walkman line. He told Reuters new product anouncements would come soon, particularly around the time of a big telecoms conference in Barcelona in March.
Further out, he saw television on mobile phones becoming popular in two years or so. "It will be 2007 or 2008," he said.
Issues to be solved were how to package TV for phones, such as making edited higlights or shorter versions of popular shows.
He said he aimed to make mobile TV as familiar as possible. "On camera phones we spent a lot of time on how to replace the experience of film camera on mobile phones," he added.
Sony Ericsson's fifth place in the market leaves it behind South Korea's LG Electronics and Samsung, US group Motorola and market leader Nokia.
Motorola, whose slimline RAZR phone has proved popular among consumers, is due to report its fourth-quarter results next week, while Nokia reports on 26 January.
Stockholm-based Ohman analyst Helena Nordman-Knutson said Sony Ericsson was set for a steady 2006 amid a sector that was faced with strong competitive challenges.
"A combination of Ericsson's technology and Sony's expertise in music and imaging creates an attractive offer," she said.