Walkman phones quadrupled Sony Ericsson 4Q profit
January 26, 2006 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under Mobile Monitor, Sony Ericsson
Today I will post a press release. Because it’s pretty interesting to try to figure out what the main reason was for the success of the Walkman phone.
Sony Ericsson said it has sold 3 million Walkman-branded phones since their launch in August 2005.
“We are now seeing the benefit of our earlier investments in research and development which have enabled us to expand the product lineup and successfully appeal to new consumers with products like the Walkman phone series,” Chief Executive Miles Flint said in a statement.
Sony Ericsson said the average price per phone sold dropped 10% to EUR143 from EUR159 in the fourth quarter of 2004. The average selling price is a key metric for financial analysts.
“Sony Ericsson did well in the high-value phones segment. Profit was clearly better than we had expected,” said Nicolas von Stackelberg, an analyst at Sal. Oppenheim in Germany. Stackelberg has a neutral rating on Ericsson.
Stackelberg said a favorable tax rate also likely helped boost net profit.
Sony Ericsson’s first Walkman-branded phone, the W800, has enjoyed favorable reviews and was initially sold out in some markets. The phone features a two megapixel camera, a built in music player and can store around 150 songs in its standard configuration.
So the secret in marketing a good phone is to (1) take something that already works, like the SE k750i (2) brand it with something uber nostalgic, (3) show off just one feature – just ONE good feature that will make the consumer drool (like really cool music output). After that, (4) slowly show off the other great features (like a 2.0MP camera) so the consumer experiences what I call “die by the specs.”
Read it here.
