Sony Ericsson launches two new mobile phones

STOCKHOLM: Swedish-Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson launched two new handsets with colour screens and cameras. Analysts see the success of the new phones, among the first to be developed from scratch by the firm since its creation in 2001, as key to its survival in the fiercely competitive market, where Finland's Nokia is a highly profitable leader.

Sony Ericsson, which has a six percent share of the market but needs seven to 10 percent to return to the black, unveiled the T310 handset, a model aimed at the youth market with enhanced gaming capabilities and an attachable camera, which will be available in shops in March. Its estimated cost is around 3,000 Swedish crowns ($355).

It also showed the T610, a more advanced phone with an in-built camera and an attachable flash flight for taking pictures in low-light conditions. The T610, with an estimated cost of around 6,000 Swedish crowns is aimed at the medium to higher end of the market and will be available in the second quarter. "We will launch more products during the year, but I can't disclose what kind of products now," said Per Alksten, the firm's marketing manager for the Nordic region.

Sony Ericsson was born out of the loss-making handset units of consumer electronics giant Sony Corp and the world's biggest producer of mobile networks, Telefon AB LM Ericsson.

The new phones will complement the company's two lower-end models, the T100 and T200, which the company said were selling well.

Sony Ericsson also showed new applications for its advanced P800 camera-PDA-phone aimed at professional users, which would allow employees to make secure connections to company databases and synchronise their calendar and e-mail on the move. The new phones come after the company launched its first 3G handset, capable of live video calls, in mid-February.

Sony Ericsson has been loss-making since the start, and its parents inserted 150 million euros each into the venture earlier this year to keep it going and give a portfolio of its new, jointly developed handsets, a chance to win over buyers.

But with six percent market share in the fourth quarter of 2002 against Nokia's 39 percent and 19 percent for second-placed Motorola, the joint venture is still far from its goal. Samsung and Siemens are also bigger than the Swedish-Japanese joint venture.