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Motorola net off on weak cell sales

money.cnn.com — Wireless technology company faces substantial drop in cell phone sales for third quarter.

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  • Googlelady, on 10/26/2007, -14/+11Never liked Motoral I think they have the worst mobile phones, I would prefer nokia
  • str3ama, on 10/26/2007, -2/+3massive insider trading just weeks before...
    Ka-Ching™
  • dellforge, on 10/26/2007, -6/+1wtf are you talking about there stock is up 3 dollars in the last 3 months.
  • Error601, on 10/26/2007, -1/+7They kind of left out some important bits. Like that drop is about 4% of total sales and cell phones is 20-some percent of the business. They've always been more oriented toward professional equipment and have not been that good at flashy, cheap consumer stuff.
    • rpgmaker, on 10/26/2007, -0/+2The last time I checked they were the manufacturers of the 'Numero uno' cellphone in sales in the US.
      • potp, on 10/27/2007, -1/+4India and china has a bigger market for GSM cellphones then America so it means didly squat to be 'Numero uno' in the USA.
  • dellforge, on 10/26/2007, -0/+0Motorola will be around as they since aquired the head of the DEA. Got Mota?
  • mrjit, on 10/26/2007, -0/+21Maybe if they'd take that stupid ***** battery-dying-beep out of their stupid ***** phones, or give me an option to COMPLETELY MUTE THE PHONE I wouldn't have a completely passionate hatred for them. And using MPT is not a fix.
    • starf, on 10/26/2007, -0/+17Not to mention those horrible buttons on the side of the phone that don't disable with the phone being locked or closed.
  • virtualball, on 10/26/2007, -3/+19iPhone FTW? Or ***** overused design and horrible interface FTL?
  • IllBeBack, on 10/26/2007, -0/+6Maybe people are keeping their cell phones a little longer these days...?
    • macinpcusr, on 10/26/2007, -0/+2You've raised a good question. Maybe their downfall is their ability to build a reliable phone. I don't have one personally, I had one, and went through 4 of them before I got an LG. It kind of reminds me of that Stride commercial...
      • ez12a, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1I agree. My dad had a low end motorola camera phone from Verizon. He had to exchange it twice before he got a decently working one, but even then it still had its quirks. (Mind you, every motorola phone he got had its own individual quirk, like on one you would make a call and you cant hear him, but he can hear you, and another phone where its screen just died). Not to mention a lot of friends who had their RAZRs break with their own little quirks too. Motorola sucks. My family went with LGs and haven't been happier.
  • anthropocentric, on 10/26/2007, -1/+8Not a single good motorola cell phone since the startac, one of my favorite phones ever.
    • MagicCake, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3Ah yeah, that was like the ancient predecessor to the RAZR, in a way. Pretty small for the time.
  • andrewcsayer, on 10/26/2007, -2/+2False: I do not miss Jim Halpert
  • RogerT1, on 10/26/2007, -1/+9A few things to note:
    a) This was their first posted profit in three quarters.
    b) The percentage plunge is in comparison to last year's third quarter
    c) The company beat their estimates.
    All in all, a great quarter for a company that has been falling behind these past few years.
    • xerexes1, on 10/26/2007, -1/+31. Motorola Inc.'s third-quarter earnings plummeted 94 percent
      2. Sales fell to $8.81 billion, down 17 percent from $10.6 billion a year earlier but up a percentage point from the second quarter
      3. The cell-phone unit, its biggest, saw sales tumble 36 percent to $4.5 billion and recorded an operating loss of $138 million. That was nearly $1 billion worse than a year ago but only about half the $264 million loss of the second quarter.
      4. The company put its current market share at 13 percent, down from 23 percent in 2006
      5. For the first nine months of the year, Motorola had a loss of $149 million, or 6 cents per share, compared with net income a year earlier of $3 billion, or $1.24 per share. Revenue sank 13 percent to $27 billion from $31 billion.
      http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Earns- ...

      Of course, I just posted the negatives to counter your point. However, numbers like this are akin to Microsoft's track record. They are both huge companies and are capable of staying afloat, as long as the shareholders and board of directors allow.
  • elvisB, on 10/26/2007, -8/+3I would have bought one but I blew all my money having my brain tumor removed;) I really don't understand why you yuppies are so into your cell phones. Perhaps some kind of void that the right ringtone might fill. Can you hear me now, *****!
    • cmpshotty, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3Awww! Someone can't afford a cell phone and needs a hug.
  • Coinspinner, on 10/26/2007, -2/+4Motorola sponsers some bizarre traveling "anti drug" exhibit with those clowns ONDCP.

    Never buy from Motorola.
  • SteelFrog, on 10/26/2007, -1/+5Want the list of problems I'm having with my brand new Moto Q?

    - It freezes at least 4 times a day. I have to take out the battery and restart it.
    - It shuts down randomly a few times a day too.
    - The battery randomly drains completely once a day. (it goes from 75% full and all of a sudden needs to be fully charged)
    - I can only call about one in five tries.
    - I can't call more than once per reboot.
    - My mail only downloads once every few tries.

    And that's why they're losing money. Apparently, my symptoms are common.; I could go on and on. My replacement unit better get here soon.
  • clockdist, on 10/26/2007, -1/+1I don't talk on cell phones anymore, I just text.
  • blackbrutha, on 10/26/2007, -2/+7Motorola has Apple Inc.'s iPhone to thank. Moto phones suck anyways.
    • frostieDude, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3I had a RAZR before buying an iPhone. I liked my RAZR just not the software on it. Moto's software really sucks as far as usability. What good are feature if the software to use them is terrible?

      But the industrial design of the phone, I loved it. It was nice and small. I liked the second screen on the outside. It had a good feel to it. Just wish it had better software.
  • MrKite, on 10/26/2007, -1/+5I'm not surprised. I've had 2 Motorola phones and they sucked. They need to learn a thing or 2 about usability.
  • psykiv, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3The senior VP of Motorola made a presentation at my school the other day. They seem to be heavily investing in WiMax and 4G technology. They also want to concentrate on making money from ads and enforcing DRM :( Such a shame, he seemed like a nice guy. If I'm paying a few hundred dollars for a cell phone, I don't want to see any freaking ads on it and I'd like to do whatever I want with it, thanks.

    On a side note, every motorola phone I've had sucked. Nokia or Blackberry > Motorola Phones any day.
  • denzinger, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1I had a StarTAC. I loved it. It took a beating and still worked. It fell in water and still worked. It worked under mountains and everywhere else I ever went. Because of -physical- wear (i.e. repetitive friction damage caused by me), the plastic finally disintegrated. It still worked. Had it been casually waterproof (sink spray, caught in the rain, etc.) I'd still be using it. It was also lighter than the K1M I have now.

    The K1M is OK, but just not the same. Oh yeah...and one more thing: It was damned stupid of VZW to request the K1M not have A2DP, and stupider of Motorola to provide it. I can't imagine bad decisions like that are healthy for their profit.
  • zenwhen, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3When you aren't innovating, you are stagnating.
    • Error601, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1Why you post irrelevant slogans, you're saying nothing.
  • iceman0113, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3I have a motorolla phone and it's great, but after hearing them back the DEA with money and such, ***** them. Even though it's a relatively brand new phone, I'm searching for a new one; I will not support a company that lobbies against what should be an individual or lifestyle choice.
  • LinuxGalore, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3I had a look at the new Moto V9 and went MEH! when I saw the 2MP camera spec. when everyone else is now 3.2MP or better in that price range.
  • weirdlookinguy, on 10/26/2007, -0/+4Kill off the ***** RAZR already, make your phones fast and responsive (not slow, buggy, glitchy pieces of *****), work on battery life, and make them a little more durable.
  • z0mbie2099, on 10/26/2007, -0/+2Open your devices. Profits will increase. Your lucky number is 1973.
  • geogia456, on 10/27/2007, -3/+0Yes, Motorolar cell phone are staying in disadvantage in the market on the whole. I often dating at millionairematch.com and sometimes asked the trend of cell phone and most of them using Nokia. While the Motoralar is improving and gained many people's, esp. developing countrys', endorsement
  • bigjimslade, on 10/26/2007, -1/+2This is what happens when a company rests on its success and chooses pinheads to run marketing and the rest of the company. They had the RAZR, made a ton of dough, and investers wanted a follow up. Meanwhile, Motorola enables the discounting of the RAZRs, meaning less income. So, when they lost their butts, the CFO said, "ok, in order to raise our share price we'll have to cut costs." So they fired most of their phone engineers and designers. Where's that leave Motorola? Nowhere. They have no phone in the works. Nothing intersting. Little engineering experience. They're a wrecked company.

    It's Motorola's inept upper management that is responsible for this. Meanwhile, they all got bonuses while the people the actually made their successful products got the axe.

    No, I don't work there, nor have I ever.
    • Error601, on 10/26/2007, -0/+1You do know they do a lot more than cell phones, right?
  • melitta, on 10/27/2007, -0/+0I hate Moto, because his battery-life very short
  • crpietschmann, on 11/05/2007, -0/+1Get 15% Off at http://www.store.motorola.com with the following Coupon Code: PASS_11805
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