Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker increased selling prices.

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Japanese-Swedish enterprise Sony Ericsson, the world's fifth biggest mobile phone maker, posted second consecutive quarterly profit and said that higher average selling prices more than offset a drop in the number of units shipped.

"We are now well positioned for long-term growth," the company's chief executive officer Bert Nordberg said.

Second quarter net profit was 12 million euro ($15.5 million), compared with a 213 million euro net loss a year earlier. Although sustaining the turnaround that started in the first quarter the result was lower than analysts' expectations for a 50 million euro profit.

Revenue for the second quarter rose 4.3 percent to 1.76 billion euros. The average selling price rose 31 percent to 160 euros while the total number of units shipped fell 20 percent to 11 million due to the reduction in size of the company's product portfolio. Increased selling price was explained by an improved product and geographical mix as well as positive currency effects.

In the first quarter Sony Ericsson -- a joint venture established 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson -- surprised by posting its first net profit since the second quarter of 2008.

Since the middle of 2008, the company has reduced its workforce by about 4,000 people to a total of about 7,800 at the end of June. The group said that its programme was now in the final phase and would generate economies of nearly 880 million euros per year.

The company estimated that its share of the global market was steady at 4.0 percent in terms of volume in the second quarter, and it held to its forecast that the total number of mobile telephone handsets sold in the world this year would rise slightly from the figure last year.

Ericsson, in common with its long-term rival Nokia, faces head-on new competition from US group Apple with its iPhone and the Canadian company RiM which makes the Blackberry. This has pushed Sony Ericsson to review its strategy to win back market share at the top end of the market.

In early trading the price of shares in Sony Ericsson was showing a gain of 1.1 percent to 87.20 kronor. The overall market showed a rise of 0.3 percent.