Sony Ericsson defies analysts, posts a profit for Q1

It lives! Sony Ericsson have posted a profit for Q1 of 2010 - after almost two years, the Swedish-Japanese collaboration is back in black. The lengthy and costly changes Sony Ericsson has been going through just might prove to be the winning strategy.

Sony Ericsson's net profit for the first quarter is 21 million euro - that's not exactly a fortune, but considering analysts were predicting 128 million euro loss, this small win appears like a huge victory.

Sony Ericsson is moving towards more expensive phones - the Average Selling Price went up to 134 euro (181 US dollars), from 120 euro (162 dollars) from last year. With the recent announcement of the Sony Ericsson Zylo and Spiro, it seems they won't be abandoning affordable phones either.

When compared to last year's Q1, Sony Ericsson sold 4 million phones less (10.5 vs. 14.5 million) and lost a percent of their global mobile phones sales share (4%, down from 5%). But they still managed to turn a profit this time around.

How? Those restructuring charges are finally paying off. Sony Ericsson are not out of the woods yet by any means - we have to wait for the Q2 results before the restructuring can be deemed a success.

If Sony Ericsson manages to repeat this feat, then maybe they can finally get on their way to reclaiming lost market share.

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