Sony Ericsson announced today its financial results for the first quarter of 2008, as well as the total number of mobile phones shipped in this period. The Swedish-Japanese joint venture managed to sell, worldwide, 22.3 million handsets until the 19th of March 2008, which represents a 2% growth when compared to the first quarter of 2007 (21.8 million devices sold). However, when compared to the number of units shipped in the fourth quarter of 2007 (30.8 million), the sales have decreased considerably. But this depreciation is understandable, considering the fact that the first quarter of a year is usually the lowest in sales, while the last one is the highest (due to the winter holidays).

The average unit selling price fell from 134 euros (in Q1 2007) to 121 euros, meaning there were fewer expensive Sony Ericsson handsets shipped. Also, the net profit was only of 133 million euros, a huge 47% decrease if compared to the first quarter of 2007, when the net income was of 254 million euros. Sony Ericsson motivated this by the fact that it has made serious investments in the R&D (research and development) department.

Dick Komiyama, Sony Ericsson's President, declared, "Sony Ericsson continues to invest in expanding its product portfolio to appeal to a wider variety of consumers in both new and existing markets. Our product announcements during the first quarter have been well received by the industry, and we expect to see a positive effect from these announcements during the second half of 2008."

The 22.3 million Sony Ericsson phones sold by in the Q1 of 2008 cannot be compared with the number of devices shipped by Nokia in this period (115.5 million units), but it's still an impressive figure, which keeps Sony Ericsson among the global leaders in the mobile industry.

The rest of 2008 will probably bring both bigger sales and profits if we think about the approaching release of Xperia X1 and Paris/P5, two handsets that seem to be among the hottest mobile devices to be launched this year.