Sony Ericsson has revealed it had a disastrous winter and a truly terrible 2011. The company has posted net losses of £173m for the final quarter of 2011 and £206m for the whole year. But just how do you lose £206m?
IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo told us the results "show how fierce the smart phone competition is", with Sony Ericsson unable to shake its perception as a second-division brand among phone networks.
Sony Ericsson is in a momentous transitional phase at the moment: the decade-old partnership between Japanese giant Sony and Swedish telecoms company Ericsson is ending as Sony buys out the brand and ditches feature phones to focus on smart phones. SE's Android-powered smart phone sales were up 65 per cent, but sales of lower-specced phones dropped off a cliff.
Son Eric bosses blamed "intense competition, unfavourable macroeconomic conditions and the effects of a natural disaster in Thailand this quarter", the latter causing a shortage of components.
Jeronimo reckons Sony has a lot of work to do, but hasn't made a mistake taking over the business: "The mobile business comes to Sony at the right time. Sony needs to integrate all products and services together. The handset business was the missing part and will drive this integration, which will lock consumers into a single and unique experience and set of services."
But Jeronimo believes it won't just be Sony Ericsson struggling this year, with these results forming "the first sign of what we can expect over the coming weeks".
"The phone market is slowing down... IDC expects a significant decline in the feature-phone segment and a strong slowdown in smart-phone growth. Over the next few weeks we expect to see more disappointing results from Nokia, LG, Motorola, and HTC."
Nokia lost a whopping £427m in the middle of last year, but just four short months later the Finnish phone-fanciers made a surprise profit. So that's why Sony is considering Windows Phone...
Sony's first solo effort is the Xperia S, which we got our hands on at CES last week. It's a high-end, high-powered handset and no mistake, and looks a serious challenger to the best Android phones 2012 will have to offer.
Only Samsung and Apple are expected to announce healthy books this year. Apple is set to release its results next week.
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Comments 5
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damien2501 19 January, 2012 13:19
*Puts had up* I know, I know. Its because they made phones that sucked!!!
Rich Trenholm 19 January, 2012 13:46
Congratulations - you are now an analyst!
anonymous 19 January, 2012 15:59
I said this in a previous cnet story (the sony windows leak) that sony phones suck.
Even the new experia S is actually slugish because they mess around with the android OS.
Look at the sony tablet lineup they are still pushing the tablet S & P when the first quad core tabs are coming out. Sony have been behind for quite some time now and there is no way they can catch up.
Everyone wants a HTC, samsung or Moto android phone, Sony are not what they used to be. They are losing in all departments.
anonymous 24 January, 2012 17:52
I've experienced many brands but SONY delivers the quality which most people don't bother. Higher quality fetch higher cost and they are unable to convince and sell their quality product to mass.
Many other phones packed with features but lacks quality and they win because of overall lower life of the product.
SE is lagging in features and this is the main reason why they are making themselves difficult to survive.
I personally love SE but as they are not offering features, I switched to other brands.
Customers got many alternatives - tabs, mini laptops, cheaper mobiles by local companies. People don't care about quality. One year warranty period is enough.
I hope SONY with new look will come up in the competition to deliver quality.
anonymous 8 February, 2012 06:37
Thank You
The given information is very effective
i will keep updated with the same
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