Sony Ericsson's Profits Plunge

Much as Nokia (NOK Quote) did when it released its earnings report Thursday, Sony Ericsson forecast that the global handset market for 2008 will grow at a rate of around 10% from more than 1.1 billion units in 2007. The industry average selling price per unit is expected to decline as "the majority of ... growth is expected to be in emerging markets where lower priced phones dominate."

Looking ahead, Sony Ericsson said that "challenging market conditions are expected to prevail" for at least the rest of this year, especially the third quarter.

Even though results weren't worse than Sony Ericsson had predicted in June, both parent companies were trading mixed early Friday. Ericsson was tacking on 0.2% to $11.85, while Sony lost 2.5% to $41.20.

Among other handset makers, Nokia was rising 0.7% to $27.51, while Motorola (MOT Quote) was off 1.6% to $7.26. Qualcomm (QCOM Quote) was unchanged.

As for smartphone makers, Research In Motion (RIMM Quote) eased 0.5% to $110.25, and Apple (AAPL Quote), which posts quarterly results after the closing bell Monday, was down 1.3% to $169.55.