Sony Ericsson recorded a small drop in fourth-quarter sales, due to lower prices for its mobile phones. While unit sales rose 18 percent from a year earlier to 30.8 million phones, revenues dipped to EUR 3.771 billion from EUR 3.782 billion. The average selling price fell to EUR 123 from EUR 146 a year ago, reflecting a shift to more lower priced handsets in the portfolio, Sony Ericsson said. The company still improved operating profit, to EUR 489 million from EUR 484 million last year, while net profit declined to EUR 373 million from EUR 447 million. Based on estimated total market sales of 1.1 billion phones last year, the company estimates it gained 2 percentage points in market share, to reach slightly over 9 percent. Total unit sales for Sony Ericsson in 2007 rose to 103.4 million handsets, from 74.8 million in 2006.
