The Financial Times (FT) reports that Sony Ericsson – the world’s third-largest handset vendor – does not expect to post a profit this full-year and has confirmed a change of strategy by focusing on making higher-priced mobile devices. Dick Komiyama, president of the Swedish-Japanese joint venture, is cited by the publication as pointing to an expected net loss for full-year 2009: “Overall, it is on the negative side.” The comments follow the vendor’s announcement Friday of a net loss of €73 million for the full-year 2008, compared with a net profit of €1.1 billion in 2007. According to the FT report, Mr Komiyama added that the company’s focus in the current market downturn will be on improving profitability rather than increasing market share. To that end, he confirmed that previous plans to make cheap mobiles for emerging markets such as China and India have been put on hold. Instead, high-end handsets such as smartphones that can support Google’s Android operating system are likely to be unveiled this year.

Meanwhile reports today state that Sony Ericsson’s attempt to license Sony’s Playstation brand to replicate the success of its Walkman phone franchise has apparently been rejected by Sony. UK publication Mobile Today claims the refusal to sanction the Playstation brand on the handsets in December has prompted a fall out between Sony and the mobile joint venture.