Sony Ericsson has released five new handsets aimed at a variety of different market segments as it attempts to regain lost ground in the global handset sector. The new handsets include two new entry-level phones for emerging markets (the J132 and the K330), a gaming phone with built-in motion sensing technology (the F305), a high-end camera phone with a 8.1 megapixel camera (the C905 Cyber-shot), and a lower-level camera phone with 2.0 megapixels also aimed at emerging markets (the S302 Snapshot). However, unlike many of its competitors, Sony Ericsson has not launched an iPhone-style touchscreen device.

The vendor is hoping that its expanded handset portfolio will enable it to claw back some lost market share. A recent study by Gartner found that Sony Ericsson had slipped to fifth place in global mobile phone shipments during first-quarter 2008, overtaken by Korean vendor LG . According to Gartner, Sony Ericsson sold 22.1 million units in the quarter for a 7.5 percent market share. The vendor had previously issued a profit warning relating to weakening demand in the European mid-to-high-end device market. Meanwhile, Jae Hoon Bae, LG’s president of Southeast Asia, told Dow Jones Newswires this week that the Korean vendor is expecting a 20 percent quarterly rise in handset sales for the second-quarter of the year and remains confident of exceeding its target of 100 million unit shipments by year-end. Elsewhere, market-leader Nokia announced two new handsets in its high-end E-series range of smartphones this week, the E66 and the E71.