Sony Ericsson warns on profits

SONY ERICSSON said it won't make as much money as it thought it would this quarter as it's having trouble flogging stuff.

Or, as it put it in a statement this morning: "Moderating sales growth of mobile phone units is expected to negatively impact net sales and net income before tax for the first quarter of 2008."

The firm said it plans to ship 22 million phones during the quarter at about €120 ($188) each. It now estimates net income before taxes at between €150 million to €200 million, significantly down on last year's €362 million.

The firm said it's spent a lot on R&D recently while some of its products' components have sometimes been hard to find. µ