Mixed results for Sony Ericsson

Sony has published financial results for the last fiscal year, and it’s a mixed bag for the mobile phone arm of the Japanese behemoth.

Sales are up seven per cent on last year, which is obviously good. In fact, the firm raked in €12.7 billion (£10.1 billion) in sales, as well as increasing year on year shipments by 25 per cent.

Well done and a big pat on the back for the SE boys then, as that equates to 103.9 million units, helping the company maintain its place in the top five manufacturers.

Not all good news

However, mobile phones were among the worst performers in Sony’s electronics portfolio, the only decreasing factor in Japan and Europe.

Japan had an overall sales loss of two per cent on the previous year, but Europe was up 11 per cent, showing the need for a big push in sales in this area for Sony Ericsson as the segment was a poor performer in a growing sector.

Income before tax for the mobile phone division decreased seven per cent overall to €1.4 billion (£1.1 billion), which was put down largely to the appreciation of the yen compared to the US dollar, and to an increase in R&D activities.

Hopefully this means the PSP phone may be coming soon, as well as a whole raft of technological advances.

The Walkman and Cybershot range were the best performers in the range, and this should be continued when SE moves the letter prefix from ‘k’ to ‘c’ for the camera range.