Sony-Ericsson swells on music, multimedia

The long-struggling Sony-Ericsson joint venture is finally paying dividends, primarily on the strength of music and multimedia phones. The company's leaked third-quarter earnings report proved better than expected, with a net income increase of 187 percent to $374 million. The company also now predicts 2006 global handset sales to reach more than 950 million, giving the company an 8 percent market share and a solid hold of fourth place behind Nokia, Motorola and Samsung.

As mobile entertainment content becomes more and more valuable to consumers, mobile phones increasingly will become consumer electronic devices in their own right and less mere network access devices. The ability to display, organize and discover content is the battleground for the device market going forward, and I expect to see some great innovation in the next few years.

Check out Sony-Ericsson's progress:
- in the Q3 2006 highlights release [1]
- or the RCR Wireless News article [2]

Related Articles:
- Sony-Ericsson on the up and up [3]