Earnings: Handset Manufacturers Q2 Earnings; Motorola Down, LG Up, Sony Ericsson Up

By James Quintana Pearce - Thu 19 Jul 2007 08:10 AM PST

As it warned Motorola has posted a net loss for the second quarter ending June 30, reporting a net loss of $28 million compared to a profit of $1.38 billion a year ago. The ailing handset business dragged down the overall results, with sales falling 19.3 percent year-on-year to $8.7 billion. Motoroal shipped 35.5 million mobile handsets in the quarter, down from 45.4 million for the first quarter and 65.7 million in the last quarter of 2006, reports CNN Money. Analysts estimate this has dropped Motorola into third place in handset vendors, behind Nokia and Samsung. (release)

LG Electronics posted a 385 billion won ($420 million) profit in the three months ending June 30 compared to a loss of 9.7 billion won (US$10.59 million) a year ago. This can partly be attributed to a roaring mobile handset trade: LG’s handset sales rose 27 percent year-on-year to 2.7 trillion won (US$2.9 billion) from 19.1 million phones sold in Q2, bringing the total number of handsets in the first half of 2007 to 34.9 million reports Cellular News. The company’s operating profit for its mobile phone division was 11.6 percent.

Sony Ericsson has also posted a strong gain in handset sales. The number of handsets shipped in the second quarter grew by 59 percent year-on-year to 24.9 million—of which 9 million were Walkman phones. Sales for the quarter increased by 37 percent year-on-year to 3.112 billion euros (US$4.296 billion) and income before taxes increased by 55 percent to 327 million euros (US$451 million). The average sale price for SE handsets fell to 125 euros (US$173). (release)