Stockholm  - Mobile telephone maker Sony Ericsson on Friday reported a loss for the third quarter of 2009 and said it would continue its transformation programme to stem the flow of red ink.

The pre-tax loss was 199 million euros (297 million dollars), the group said. The net loss was 164 million euros compared to a net loss of 25 million euros in the third quarter of 2008. Turnover declined 42 per cent year-on-year to 1.62 billion euros.

The Sony Ericsson joint venture was formed in 2001 between Sweden's Ericsson and Japan's Sony.

Outgoing Chief Executive Dick Komiyama said the management's transformation programme was continuing and "started to show the effects", and that the group was gearing up to launch new handsets.

Komiyama was succeeded on October 15 by Bert Nordberg, and is to stay on as advisor until the end of the year.

The group said it delivered some 14.1 million handsets during the third quarter of 2009, down 45 per cent year-on-year, but up 2 per cent on second-quarter 2009. The group estimated it had around 5 per cent of the global handset market.

The average selling price of the group's handsets was 114 euros in the quarter, up 5 per cent year-on-year.

Sony Ericsson said it maintained its forecast that the global market would decline some 10 per cent during 2009.

Rival Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, revised Thursday its earlier estimate for the global handset market for 2009. Instead of a 10 per cent drop, it estimated the market would shrink 7 per cent. (dpa)