Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) reported a net loss of €293 million euros ($384 million) in the first quarter of 2009, compared to a profit of €133 million euros ($174 million) the same period last year, and said it would slash 2,000 jobs to reduce costs. Revenues fell 36 percent to €1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion) from €2.7 billion euros ($3.5 billion) last year, as weakened consumer demand continued to take a toll on mobile handset sales. The world’s fourth largest handset maker shipped 14.5 million handsets in Q1, a 35 percent drop compared to last year.

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Sony Ericsson President Dick Komiyama in a statement called the first quarter of the year “extremely challenging for Sony Ericsson” and that it was embarking on another cost savings program to realign the company “to the new market reality with the aim of bringing the company back to profitability as quickly as possible.” The struggling handset maker said the job cuts would cost it €200 million euros ($267 million), but would help it trim €400 million euros ($524 million) from its annual operating expenses, to be completed by 2010.

Sony Ericsson estimated that its market share shrank 2 percent sequentially to 6 percent, while the average selling price of a phone fell 1 euro to 120 euros in Q1. Sony Ericsson’s earnings come just a day after Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which reported a 90 percent drop in net profit in Q1. Sony Ericsson has forecast that the global handset market for 2009 will contract at least 10 percent from around 1.19 billion units in 2008.

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