Esato Forums - Sony Ericsson / Sony : General : March 9 :: Sony Ericsson Raises forecast for mobile phone market

Index Menu

> New Topic
> Reply
< Esato Forum Index > Sony Ericsson / Sony > General > March 9 :: Sony Ericsson Raises forecast for mobile phone market Bookmark topic

signatory Posts: 26

http://quote.bloomberg.com/ap[....]&sid=aYgRQ0hTwLEg&refer=europe

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd., the handset joint venture between Ericsson AB and Sony Corp., raised its 2004 mobile-phone market forecast as the manufacturer unveiled five new devices to sell this year.

Industry sales, measured in units, will grow ``more than'' 10 percent this year, Sony Ericsson President Katsumi Ihara said in an interview after a press conference in London. In January the company predicted market growth of as much as 10 percent.

``I wouldn't feel uncomfortable with that new forecast,'' said Richard Windsor, a telecommunications equipment analyst at Nomura Securities in London. Consumers are replacing handsets more frequently as manufacturers add functions and demand is increasing in emerging markets such as China and India, he said.

Sony Ericsson has reported two straight quarterly profits as consumers upgrade their phones, lifting demand for models such as the T610 camera phone. Even so, the company lost the No. 5 slot based on volumes in the third quarter to LG Electronics Inc., according to researcher Gartner Inc.

Sony Ericsson today announced the S700 phone, which has a 1.3 megapixel camera, at a press conference in London and the K700, which records and plays videos and is able to store about 450 pictures taken with its camera, the company said.

Other models included the Z500, which will target the American market and offers a walkie-talkie function.

Ihara, who has run the venture since it was founded in 2001, last month said his focus this year will be on developing phones with better cameras. There will be a ``huge difference'' in the quality of phone cameras this year compared with 2002, he said in an interview.

Better Pictures

Camera phones with resolutions of up to two megapixels will be in stores by Christmas, analysts at Goldman, Sachs & Co. wrote in a note to clients this month. The greater the pixel count of an image, the higher the resolution or detail of that image.

``We're going to see a flurry of megapixel cameras'' in coming months, said Ben Wood, an analyst at Gartner. ``Sony Ericsson is doing a great job.''

Sony Ericsson's growth has been hampered as it hasn't been able to produce enough of the popular models such as the T610 phone to meet demand, said Wood. In Stockholm, most Vodafone Group Plc stores were recently sold out of the T630 phone, which is a follow-up to the T610.
--------