The London-based joint venture between Sony and Swedish telecom equipment vendor Ericsson unveiled eight new phones–four at the low end of the price scale and four higher-priced models.
Sony Ericsson will be launching two new Walkman music phones, the W880 and the W610, and two Cyber-shot digital camera phones. They will also be launching four low-end phones.
ZDNet says the low-cost phones have color screens, and two have a basic digital camera. They will be available in the second quarter of 2007.
The company has a history of selling devices with features and prices slightly above those of its competitors.
Due to the success of its Walkman and Cyber-shot phones it is said that Sony Ericsson is the fastest-growing mobile phone vendor in the global top five. Sony Ericsson has sold over 20 million Walkman phones and 4.5 million of their Cyber-shot phones.
SE had a fourth-quarter share of 8.7 percent in the global market, up from 6.6 percent in the year-ago period.
Analysts weren’t too concerned about declining profit margins as a result of the new phones. It is not expected that any of these phones will be competing directly with the Apple iPhone.
They deliver according to their strategy, with good balance and control over growth and good profitability,” said analyst Mats Nystrom at SEB Enskilda. “The product portfolio is going gradually toward low end and therefore neither ASP (average selling prices) nor margins should come down significantly.
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