Strong demand lifts Sony Ericsson Q3 profit

Sony Ericsson reported that its third quarter earnings nearly tripled because of consumer demand for its improved camera and music phones, an Associated Press report said.

The Associated Press report said the world's No. 5 handset maker in an email disclosed that net profit nearly tripled to 298 million euros ($373.78 million) in the quarter that ended September 30, compared to 104 million euros ($130.45 million) in the same quarter last year.

Quarterly sales rose 42% to 2.91 billion euros ($3.65 billion) from 2.05 billion euros ($2.57 billion) a year earlier, the report said.

Analysts polled by SME Direkt had predicted a sales increase of 16% to 2.4 billion euros ($3.01 billion), the report said.

The numbers caused shares of parent LM Ericsson to rise 5.2% to 27.60 kronor ($3.73) in Stockholm trading.

The London-based company, a joint venture of Japan's Sony and Sweden's LM Ericsson, said the number of handsets shipped rose 43% to 19.8 million in the third quarter, compared with 13.8 million in the same period last year, the report further said.