STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson on Friday reported a euro50 million ($71 million) loss in the second quarter, saying the impact of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami hurt profitability.
The Swedish-Japanese joint venture posted a profit of euro12 million in the same quarter last year.
Net sales were euro1.19 billion, down from euro1.76 billion a year ago
Sony Ericsson said the earthquake on March 11 disrupted its supply chain, with mobile phone shipments falling 31 percent to 7.6 million units.
"We estimate that the impact of earthquake-related supply chain constraints on our portfolio was close to 1.5 million units, with most of the effect in the early part of the quarter," CEO Bert Nordberg said.
London-based Sony Ericsson is moving away from cheaper phone models and seeking to take on Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Research in Motion's Blackberry and Nokia Corp.'s N9 in the higher-priced smartphone market. Sony Ericsson last month unveiled two new Android phones, the Xperia ray and Xperia active, that it plans to launch in the third quarter. Sony Ericsson estimates that it has 11 percent of the Android market.
"Our shift to Android-based smart phones continues with smartphone sales accounting for more than 70 percent of our total sales during the quarter," Nordberg said. "We have shipped more than 16 million Xperia smart phones to date. We have introduced eight new Xperia smart phones this year and we continue to see strong consumer and operator demand across the Xperia smartphone portfolio."
The average selling price of a Sony Ericsson phone dipped 3 percent to euro156 from a year earlier, but was up 11 percent from the first quarter.
The company maintained its projection for modest industry growth in the global handset market for 2011.
