Sony Ericsson followed rival Nokia by raising its forecast for the global mobile phone market as it reported a strong first quarter, driven by demand for high-end music and camera phones.

The world's fifth-largest mobile phone manufacturer beat expectations to report more than threefold growth in net income for the first three months of the year to €109 million, on the back of a 41 per cent increase in handsets shipped to 13.3 million - ahead of growth in the wider market - and a 55 per cent rise in sales to €1.99 billion.

The group, a joint venture between Ericsson of Sweden and Japan's Sony, said growth in the global handset market continued to exceed expectations. It raised its 2006 forecast for worldwide mobile phone units shipped to more than 900 million compared with an earlier prediction of 10 per cent growth on 2005 to 780 million.

Last month, Nokia, the world's biggest handset maker, also raised its global 2006 market growth forecast to 15 per cent or more, compared with 795 million units in 2005.

Among Sony Ericsson's best-selling phones in the quarter were the W800, W550 and W600 Walkman which have digital music playing capabilities.

The company announced a further three Walkman branded phones including the mass market clamshell W300. - (Reuters)