From the handset delicatessen: Sony Ericsson still on a roll

Sony Ericsson continued its strong momentum in the first quarter of the year, posting big gains in revenue and profit. The vendor’s growth in those two metrics far outstrips all the other, top-tier players.
Unit shipments of its handsets, while way up on the year-ago quarter, were down substantially from the seasonally strong fourth quarter, reflecting the market’s overall slowdown.
The Japanese-Swedish joint venture reported revenue of $3.9 billion for the first quarter, up 47 percent over the year-ago quarter. Net profit reached $345 million, well over double the results in the year-ago quarter. Unit shipments reached 21.8 million, up 63 percent over the year-ago quarter, though well below the holiday-oriented fourth quarter, in which it shipped 26 million units.
Sony Ericsson’s market share in the first quarter, according to Strategy Analytics, was 8.7 percent, roughly on par with its high-water mark of 8.8 percent in the fourth quarter. While it has cemented a market share lead over No. 5 LG Electronics Co., the gap between Sony Ericsson and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.-its next-largest rival-widened. Samsung posted its highest market share in years with 13.8 percent for the quarter, up 3 points compared with the fourth quarter.
Sony Ericsson is not publicly traded, but it provided market-by-market sales figures for the first time today. Its strongest market by far is in the EMEA countries-Europe, the Middle East and Africa, presumably with Europe being the strongest-where more than half its sales take place. Slightly less than a third of sales go to Asia. Less than 13 percent go the Americas. The vendor has struggled to ignite sales in the United States, a CDMA-dominated market; SEMC makes only GSM handsets. The EMEA region leads in year-on-year growth for the company (55 percent), followed by the Americas (46 percent) and Asia (35 percent).
The company said that nearly one-third of its sales were in Walkman phones (6.5 million) during the first quarter, while its Cybershot camera phones accounted for about 9 percent of sales.
In a volume-based game, Sony Ericsson has arrived at a crossroads in addressing volume in emerging markets while preserving its profit levels, average selling prices and brand. The joint venture addressed that issue during the first quarter when it announced a manufacturing deal with two electronic manufacturing services in India and a deal with France’s Sagem Communication for entry-level GSM, GPRS and EDGE handsets.