Sony Ericsson summarizes Q2 financially, loses more ground

Last night was a restless one for a lot of accountants. Just as planned, today Sony Ericsson announced their Q2 financial results. The times are getting tougher and tougher for them it seems, the number of units shipped fell 5% compared to the previous quarter (and they weren't spectacular then, too).

The good news is, the Average Selling Price went from 120 euro to 122 driven by a "more favourable product mix", which resulted in 4% higher gross margin. This wasn't enough though - the net loss was 213 million euro (the fact that this is better than the loss of 293 million the previous quarter is hardly any consolation). The reason for this, according to Sony Ericsson lays in the challenging market conditions, with Latin America being singled out as particularly tough.

Sony Ericsson are trying to handle the situation, their programs for reducing expenses are on track and the restructuring charges related to those programs are within the expected bounds. Part of those cost reduction programs included reducing the global workforce by 2,350 workers.

The new portfolio - with the Satio, Aino and Yari at the front - are expected to help with Sony Ericsson's performance, especially with their revamped PlayNow arena, which will be expanded with app store functionality alongside the music and movie distribution.

By Sony Ericsson's estimates, their market share is slightly more than 5 percent. The company admits that they need to turn things around and grow financially if they are to retain their Tier one manufacturer status.