While the number of units in the third quarter rose 30% to 25.9 million, sales increased only 6.7% to 3.1bn euros ($4.38n) and net income fell 10.5% to 267m euros ($377.9m).
The company, a 50-50 partnership between Sony and Ericsson, said the increase in low- and mid-tier priced phones in its product portfolio resulted in a decline in the average selling price. Sony Ericsson president Miles Flint said these models were the key volume drivers while its high-spec P1 smartphone and W580 slider Walkman strengthened its portfolio at the high end.
The company predicts total sales for the year to exceed 1.1 billion units.
Sony Ericsson is the first of the handset makers to report third-quarter figures. The main interest will be to see whether Motorola has arrested its fall behind market leaders Nokia and Samsung.
