Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson's third-quarter pre-tax earnings beat expectations on strong demand for top-end phones such as the Walkman music-playing handset.
The group said today it had grown faster than the market during the quarter and upgraded its forecast for global sales.
"Average selling price rose during the quarter, reflecting the proportion of higher-end products entering the product mix," the company reported. Its pretax profit for the quarter came in at €151 million, compared with an average forecast in a Reuters poll of 18 analysts of €107 million.
Sales came to €2.06 billion, above a forecast of €1.73 billion.
It sold 13.8 million units in the third quarter, exceeding expectations of 12.4 million. The company raised its 2005 forecast for the global market to more than 760 million units from 720 million.
Sony Ericsson said the W800 Walkman phone, building on Sony's popular portable music player, had been highly successful. The K750, which has a two megapixel camera, had also done well.
Sony Ericsson is vying for fifth place in the global handset market, well behind market leader Nokia, which is due to report its third quarter results on October 20th.