Sony Ericsson Q1 results are in, still not out of the woods

Sony Ericsson announced their financial results for the first quarter of 2011. The company is forming a very tight bond with Android and smartphones account for over 60% of the total phones shipped.

This has driven the Average Selling Price (ASP) to €141 ($200), up 4% sequentially, and the gross margin went up to 33% (was 30% for Q4 of 2010). Sony Ericsson estimates it has a 5% market share for smartphones (in units).

The total number of units shipped by Sony Ericsson fell to 8.1 million (compared to 11.2 million in the previous quarter and 10.5 million during the year-ago quarter). A drop was expected after the holiday season and has mainly affected the feature phone sales.

The new Sony Ericsson Android models – the Arc, Play and Neo – came in a bit late to have a major impact on the first quarter’s sales, so we’ll have to wait until Q2 to see what kind of impact they’ll have.

Still, including this quarter, Sony Ericsson has been profitable for over an year and the net income went up to €11 million (compared to €8 million for Q4 of 2010, down compared to €21 million for Q1 of 2010). This is also the first quarter without restructuring charges in quite a while now.

Sony Ericsson borrowed an extra €375 million during Q1 (putting the total borrowings at €604 million). The total cash balance of the company at the end of the first quarter of 2011 is €599 million. The company will obviously need a few more profitable quarters to get that balance right.

There are some disruptions to the supply chains caused by the Japan earthquake and Sony Ericsson is continuing to monitor the situation.

You can get more detailed numbers of Sony Ericsson's Q1 performance here.