The manufacturer has taken a hit of Euro 1 million in restructuring charges, less than expected, and has restated its forcast for the global handset market to shrink by 10% this year.
The company stated: "As expected, the second quarter was challenging and we still believe the remainder of the year will be difficult for Sony Ericsson. Our performance is starting to improve due to our cost reduction activities."
Handset shipments were down 43% year on year for the quarter, with 13.8 million units shipped this quarter.
Gartner research director Carolina Milanesi said the results were as Gartner predicted: “Sales for Sony Ericsson are in line with our expectations as we predicted sales would be between 13 million and 14 million units.”
She added that the lack of touchscreen devices in Sony Ericsson’s portfolio is letting the business down: “The second quarter remained a challenging market, but Sony Ericsson continued to suffer from the fact that portfolio is just not competitive enough at the moment. The lack of touchscreen devices and devices focused around internet browsing as well as messaging, which consumers seem to be hungry for, continued to limit the appeal of the overall portfolio.
“The three new products announced during the quarter are promising improvements, but need to come to market early in Q4 in order for Sony Ericsson to reach a good channel presence and benefit from Christmas sales. Unfortunately for Sony Ericsson, Q4 will be one of the most competitive end of year quarters we have seen in the past three to five years, with many new models coming to market,” she warned.
A year ago Sony Ericsson reported a profit before tax of Euro 8 million.