Sony Ericsson: Handset demand is slowing

Cell phone maker Sony Ericsson said on Wednesday that demand is slowing in Europe for midpriced and high-end handsets, and that slowing demand will hit the company's first-quarter results, notes a story by Barron's Tech Trader Daily.

Sony Ericsson also said component shortages for midpriced phones had hurt sales, which the company expects will reach 22 million phones for the quarter, with an average price of $187. At least one analyst, who previously had predicted 9 percent over the year-ago quarter, told Tech Trader that that number is well below expectations. He had forecast sales of 26.5 million handsets--almost 17 percent more than the figure presented by Sony Ericsson--and now says sales likely will be 10 percent below those of the year-ago quarter.

Considering the current economic climate, though, Sony Ericsson's warning does at least parallel data released in February by Gartner, which predicted that handset sales growth in 2008 would slow to 10 percent worldwide, with market saturation in North America and Western Europe doing the most to slow sales momentum.

[JCPayne]

I've stopped buying Sony because they dont LISTEN

When you tell them there's a flaw or a bug in their software and you confirm it with many other people in the Sony-Ericsson online help forums Sony tells you if your phone model is over 12 months old they wont release anymore patches for your phone... And chances are once a model has been released in the United States, Europe and Asia already had it... (In other words-- there's a good chance it's close to a year that the phone model has already been out.)