Sony Ericsson sales tumble by 50%

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 23 Mar 2009 at 10:32

Sony Ericsson has warned that it expects sales to fall 50% in its first quarter, as consumer demand crumbles.

Sony Ericsson says it expects to sell just 14 million phones in January-March, less than half that of the corresponding quarter last year.

That equates to a pretax loss of 340-390 million euros as it heads into a second year of losses.

"It's a real catastrophe. Those are very big losses and they are probably losing a lot of market share," says Greger Johansson, from analyst firm Redeye.

"It's obvious that the volumes are much lower than the market had thought. And first and foremost, the losses are much, much bigger," he said.

Sony Ericsson's previous success has been built on a strong offering of mid-range phones with high-quality cameras and music players, but this part of the market is seeing the sharpest fall this year as operators dole out subsidies to more expensive phones.