Day: October 15, 2006

The Swedish manufacturer of carrying cases for portable electronics, Krusell, has released their “Top 10”-list for September 2006. The list is based upon the number of pieces of model specific mobile and smart phone cases that have been ordered from Krusell during September 2006. Krusell’s list is unique due to the fact that it reflects the sales of phones on six continents and in more than 50 countries around the globe.1. (1) Sony Ericsson K790i/K800i2. (3) Sony Ericsson K750i/D750i/W800i3. (4) Nokia 6230/6230i4. (2) Sony Ericsson W810i5. (6) Motorola RaZr V3/ V3i /V3c6. (9) Nokia N737. (-) Nokia 55008. (-) Sony Ericsson P9909. (5) Nokia 6280/628210.(-) Motorola Krzr K1( ) = last month’s position.At our top list for September 2006 we have several new entries such as the sporty Nokia 5500, the high end Sony Ericsson P990 or the trendy Motorola Krzr K1. Our list reflects very well the different kind of users we have, everything from the handyman to the young teenager, says Ulf Sandberg MD at Krusell International AB. A big trend in fashion for the fall and winter is red. Our line of red leather cases has been very well received by our customers and we forecast a very “red” Christmas this year in telecom shops around the world, ends Ulf Sandberg.

“PaintBall is back with more addictive, faster and richer gameplay! HiRes plus graphics with millions of colors, stereo sound, 5 different modes of gaming and Bluetooth multiplayer where you can play against your friends wirelessly. PaintBall 2 is the successor of our best seller, original, ball-sucking game, developed in a way that we can guarantee it will keep you hours and hours on your PDA. PaintBall 2 features:1) Remade 16bit graphics.2) Stereo Sound3) 2 times faster gameplay4) 5 different gaming modes5) Bluetooth Multiplayer6) 3 different ball styles7) Vibrations & Joystick support.8) Export Hi-Scores to intern— 14/Oct/2006 Update to v2.2 —* Treo 680 fully supported* minor bugs fixed”Click here to watch Paintball 2 video review and Click here for more:

Q3 Highlights: Year-on-year income before tax increases 187% Year-on-year units sales growth of 43% gives market share gain Average Selling Price increases sequentially to €147The consolidated financial summary for Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Ericsson) for the third quarter ended September 30, 2006 is as follows: Q3 2005 Q2 2006 Q3 2006Numbers of units shipped (million) 13.8 15.7 19.8Sales (EURO m.) 2,055 2,272 2,913Income before taxes (EURO m.) 151 211 433Net income (EURO m.) 104 143 298 Units shipped in the quarter reached 19.8 million, a 43% increase compared to the same period last year, and approximately double the market growth rate. Sales for the quarter were Euro 2,913 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 42%. Income before taxes was Euro 433 million representing a year-on-year increase of 187%. Net income was Euro 298 million. Sony Ericsson captured market share during the quarter due to the success of hit products such as the K800 Cyber-shot phone and Walkman phone line-up. The company further strengthened its music offering at the end of the quarter with the shipment of a new high-end Walkman phone, the W850, a tri-band/UMTS slider phone with storage capacity for up to 1,000 songs. Sony Ericsson also enhanced its music proposition by upgrading its PlayNow service to include full track, over-the-air downloads to high-end Walkman® models such as the new W850 and by launching M-BUZZ, a fixed and mobile internet space to promote new artists and their music. “The third quarter saw Sony Ericsson reap the success of hit products announced earlier in the year such as the high-end K800 and W810, mid-range K610 and lower-priced W300 and K310. Our strategy of using flagship products to give Sony Ericsson a lead position within a product category such as imaging with the Cyber-shot™ megapixel camera phone or music with the Walkman® line-up is creating a halo effect over lower-end models in the same category and encouraging new users to try our phones,” explains Miles Flint, President of Sony Ericsson. “We enjoyed a record quarter due to a favourable product mix, and after celebrating Sony Ericsson’s 5th Anniversary on October 1st the financial results we’ve announced today further illustrate how far the company has come in a short time. We have introduced a fresh approach to the communication of our brand, which aims to make it stand out in the marketplace, and we are confident that this will strengthen the Sony Ericsson brand further going forward,” he added.Average Selling Price (ASP) rose sequentially, due to a greater proportion of mid and high priced models in the product mix and the success of the K800 Cyber-shot™ phone during the quarter.Sony Ericsson continues to forecast the 2006 global handset market as being above 950 million units. On this basis the company believes it has outperformed the growth rate in the market and gained over 1% point market share this quarter, to reach a global market share of approximately 8%. In the third quarter Sony Ericsson added to its tennis sponsorship properties to become the title Sponsor of the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami, renaming it the Sony Ericsson Open, and became a sponsor at the Tennis Master’s Cup in Shanghai, the company’s first involvement with men’s tennis. Sony Ericsson will now have a presence at three major tennis tournaments throughout the year covering Europe, North and Latin America, Asia Pacific and China.WALKMAN® and Cyber-shot™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sony Corporation.Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications serves the global communications market with innovative and feature-rich mobile phones, accessories and PC-cards. Established as a joint venture by Sony and Ericsson in 2001, with global corporate functions located in London, the company employs over 7,000 people worldwide, including R&D sites in Europe, Japan, China and America. Sony Ericsson celebrated the 5th anniversary of the start of the joint venture on 1st October, 2006.Sony Ericsson is the global title sponsor of the Women’s Tennis Association, and works with the Association to promote the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in over 80 cities during the year. The tour culminates at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid, Spain, from 7 to 12 November. For more information on Sony Ericsson, please visit www.sonyericsson.com

“HELSINKI (Reuters) – The world’s top handset maker Nokia has cut prices of several of its more advanced multimedia phones by 5 to 10 percent on average in Europe, according to retailers and a source at a big UK operator.In Nokia’s home ground, Finland, retailers have cut 20 to 30 euros off the price of older models such as music phone 3250 and smartphone 6680 and also slashed prices of newer models such as N73, N71 or N93 on average by 5 to 10 percent.A source at a major British telecoms operator said Nokia had trimmed prices of its advanced N-series in an attempt to boost sales, which have been disappointing despite huge marketing expenses, and cut the price of the mass-market multimedia 3G phone 6233 by around 5 pounds ($9.29), even when it was already priced competitively.”We’ve seen a few price drops. They’ve been a bit more flexible. N-series have underperformed expectations, and that’s where they spend all their marketing dollars. These are not mass volume sellers,” the source said.Nokia declined to comment on specific price cuts or on sales performance of the N-series, but Kari Tuutti, spokesman for the multimedia unit said: “We are continuously changing prices of our products to follow their lifecycle. When prices are changed, they are changed globally.”Nokia is in the so-called closed period in the run-up to third-quarter results next Thursday on Oct 19.The company is expected to report strong numbers for the quarter, according to a Reuters poll, but many analysts pointed to a possible weakness of Nokia’s performance in Europe, the key market for the N-series phones.One of Nokia’s suppliers, Elcoteq (ELQAV.HE), last month trimmed its sales forecasts for the third quarter due to weaker-than-expected manufacturing volumes in Europe, causing its shares to fall 15 percent.Analysts said Nokia’s multimedia phones are competing with successful products from Sony Ericsson (6758.T)(ERICb.ST), which sold 2 million of its Cybershot digital camera phones in the third quarter alone.Sony Ericsson said on Thursday it had increased unit sales by 43 percent in the third quarter, which it estimated to be twice as fast as the market.Thanks to its scale, however, Nokia is in a better position to cut prices than is smaller rival Sony Ericsson, which sells one-fourth the number of phones.”Price is the most powerful weapon. I’m not surprised,” said wireless analyst Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics.” via news.yahoo.com