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Swedish-Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson posted a modest profit for the third consecutive quarter, helped by demand for smartphones running Google's Android software. Still, sale fell and earnings came in below expectations.

“Sony Ericsson’s overall performance is stabilizing,” said Chief Executive Bert Nordberg who struggles with the company's turnaround. “Smartphones now comprise more than 50 percent of our total sales and it is our ambition to become the global number one handset provider on the Android platform.”

The joint venture between Sweden's Ericsson and Japan's Sony -- the fifth-biggest player in the global sector -- reported net profit of 49 million euros ($69 million) for the three months to September 30, compared to a 164 million euro loss a year earlier.

The outcome fell far short of the figures expected by analysts who in a poll by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a net profit of 67 million euros on sales up 13 percent at 1.87 billion.

Sales and the net outcome had plunged in 2009. Last year the company launched a programme to reduce costs involving an extra loss of jobs amounting to nearly 2,000 cuts. The difficulty for Sony Ericsson, as for market leader Nokia in neighbouring Finland, has been sudden steep competition from Canadian RiM (Blackberry) and especially from American Apple (iPhone), forcing the company to refocus its business on the high end of the handset market.

Sony Ericsson said it sold 10.4 million handsets in the third quarter, a 26-percent plunge from the same period a year ago. However, the average sales price has soared as the company has refocused on the high-end, especially on its models based on Google's Android operating system.

During the quarter, the firm launched its Android-based Xperia models in new markets, such as China and the U.S. Sony Ericsson maintained its outlook for slight unit growth in the global handset market in 2010.