Swedish-Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson returned to the black in the third quarter after a string of losses but said profit in the fourth quarter would be smaller.
The company said today it made a euro39 million pre-tax profit in the third quarter against a euro116 million in the same period of 2002 and a euro102 million loss in the second quarter.
It saw strong sales of phones working in the PDC and CDMA standards in Japan and the T610 model operating in the world's biggest mobile phone technology GSM.
Bigger competitors Motorola of the United States and Korea's Samsung also expect strong fourth quarter demand for mobile phones.
Sony Ericsson's third quarter sales rose to euro1.3 billion from euro869 million in the same period of 2002 and euro1.1 billion in the second quarter.
The company shipped 7.1 million phones, up from five million last year and 6.7 million in the second quarter of 2003.
Sony Ericsson, jointly owned by the world's biggest mobile phone systems maker Ericsson and Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony, is the world's fifth-biggest handset maker.
Loss-making since its inception in October 2001 except for one quarter in which it broke even, Sony Ericsson has been under pressure from its parents to deliver profits.