Sony Ericsson Q2 profits soar to $182m

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson reported that its second-quarter earnings almost doubled, in large part due to continued strong sales of its popular Walkman music phones. It also raised its global market forecast for 2006, an Associated Press report said.
The report said the firm's net profit rose 91% to $182 million in the three months ending June 30, up from 75 million euros ($94.7 million) in the same period in 2005.
Quarterly sales grew 41% to 2.27 billion euros ($2.29 billion) from 1.61 billion euros ($2 billion) a year earlier, the report said.
The London-based company, a joint venture between Japan's Sony and Sweden's LM Ericsson, said the number of handsets shipped rose 33% to 15.7 million in the second quarter, compared with 11.8 million in the same period last year.
It sold 3.9 million Walkman-branded phones in the second quarter, up from around 2.5 million in the first three months of the year, the report said.