It’s no secret that Sony Ericsson has been struggling for the last couple of years. It hasn’t reported a profitable quarter since 2008 and 2009 has been especially tough for the company, which ended Q1 with a 293 million euro ($397 million) net income loss.
This morning, however, Sony Ericsson posted a 21 million euro ($28 million) profit for Q1 2010. On the downside, it also shipped 10.5 million handsets — 4 million fewer than the number shipped in Q1 2009 and 4.1 million fewer than the number shipped in Q4 2009.
Yes, fixing the business side of things helps. However, for the last two years, smartphones have been the most important part of the mobile market and Sony Ericsson has been steadily losing market share in that area. A return to profitability will surely make shareholders happy, but Sony Ericsson’s new smartphone strategy — with Android-based Xperia X10 and Symbian-based Vivaz at the forefront — has yet to produce results.