Motorola Handset Shipments Down 32%

Motorola has just reported the results of its most recent financial quarter, during which the number of phones this company shipped dropped significantly and it posted a net loss.

“This was a challenging quarter for Motorola in which revenue fell short of our expectations due to a decline in mobile device unit shipments,” said Ed Zander, chairman and chief executive officer.

The company's quarterly revenue of $8.7 billion was 20% below the same period of last year, and it posted a net loss of 2 cents per share.

Motorola Q Successor M.I.A.

During the second quarter of last year, Motorola shipped 51.9 million handsets and launched the very successful Motorola Q Windows Mobile Smartphone.

A year later, the company shipped 35.5 million units -- a year-year-year decline of 32% -- and has yet to get the replacements for the Q widely distributed.

For the most part, Motorola has been riding on the success of the RAZR. It shipped the 100 millionth of these last quarter, but sales have been declining years after the huge initial success of this phone.

Revenue for the Mobile Device segment of Motorola were $4.3 billion, down 40% compared with the year-ago quarter.

It attributed lower sales and earnings to lower overall unit volumes, particularly in Asia, and the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions.

It estimates its share of the global handset market for the quarter was 13.5%.

Changes at the Top

Not surprisingly, the company is trying to be upbeat about its future. “We are committed to improving the performance of the Mobile Devices business. We announced strong new leadership, began shipping a number of new products, and are implementing aggressive cost controls,” said Greg Brown, president and chief operating officer.

Brown's reference to new leadership is referring to Stu Reed, who was formerly executive vice president of Motorola’s Integrated Supply Chain organization, being named president of the company's Mobile Devices business last week.

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