Sony Ericsson sells 15 mln walkman phones

AMSTERDAM: The world's number four mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said on Thursday it had sold 15 million Walkman phones since the first product was launched a year ago, as well as two million Cybershot phones in Q3.

The Walkman and Cybershot phones, which use the Sony brands for music players and digital cameras respectively, are the top models in Sony Ericsson's product line-up and have also boosted sales of cheaper models, President Miles Flint said in a telephone interview.

Cybershot phones were launched this year and the third quarter was the first full quarter of sales of its K800 model.

The joint venture of Sweden's Ericsson and Japan's Sony Corp. published results on Wednesday.

Sony Ericsson beat expectations with third-quarter pretax earnings of 433 million euros ($543.4 million), twice as much as analysts had expected. It claimed its market share rose by one percentage point to around 8 percent.

Flint also said he saw no signs that the two shareholders wanted to sell their stakes via an initial public offering (IPO).

"I'm not seeing any signs for that," he said.