Sony Ericsson posts loss

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson has posted a quarterly loss following disruption to its supply chain caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

The Swedish-Japanese joint venture revealed a deficit of €50m for the three months to June 30, compared with profits of €12m in the same period a year earlier.

The company said the earthquake on March 11 disrupted its supply chain, with mobile phone shipments falling 31% to 7.6 million units.

Chief executive Bert Nordberg said: “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.”

London-based Sony Ericsson said smartphones accounted for 70% of sales in the quarter after it moved away from cheaper phone models to compete with Apple’s iPhone, Research in Motion’s Blackberry and Nokia’s N9.

Sony Ericsson last month unveiled two new Android phones, the Xperia ray and Xperia active, that it plans to launch in the current quarter.

The average selling price of a Sony Ericsson phone dipped 3% to €156 from a year earlier, but was up 11% from the first quarter.