iPhone trumps RAZR2 as Motorola profit drops
updated 08:45 am EDT, Thu October 25, 2007
Motorla Cell Biz Tumble
Motorola today revealed that sales in its Mobile Devices group for the summer quarter had fallen by 36 percent year over year and contributed to a large drop in the company's overall earnings. Despite an "improvement" in the company's sales, according to company chief Ed Zander, the division fell from over $848 million in profit during summer 2006 to a $138 million loss for the company. No explanation was provided for the drop, though the period included the expense of multiple high-profile phone launches, including the first public availability of the RAZR2 as well as the U9 and multiple versions of the ROKR Z6.
The loss came in spite of an apparent upside to actual shipments, which beat estimates to reach 37.2 million phones and a worldwide marketshare of 13 percent, which placed it behind leader Nokia and second-place Samsung in overall control of the market. Of the total shipments, 900,000 were for the RAZR2, which began shipping first in Korea during July and reached the US by late August.
Motorola's world shipment figure for the new clamshell phone represents a struggle to match sales of the iPhone, which topped 1.12 million shipments despite its limitation to US customers and its status as Apple's first cellphone. The number does not include the 270,000 iPhones solde in late June or the expansion of iPhone sales to Europe in November. The latter is expected to increase the handset's overall growth rate and will bring Apple in competition with Motorola devices like the RIZR Z8, which have typically only been sold in Europe.
Hmmmmm???
10/25, 10:17am reply
I guess selling things for less than it costs to make them causes you to lose money. No matter how much volume you have. :-)
"We will lose money on each item, but make it up in volume." "Brillant!!"
en
Eldernorm
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2007
Total *ssholes at Moto...
10/25, 01:09pm reply
How can a company that's been in business for so many years not have a clue on how to make money in a ripe market? I'll bet if you walked into their headquarters you'd find most of them asleep at their desks with StarTac awards hung on their cubicles. Don't they even compare the phones they make to others on the market. They had an early chance to make inroads in China years ago and they wasted it. Two handset hits in 20 years and that's it. Total dipsticks.
Constable Odo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2007
RAZR
10/25, 02:15pm reply
The original RAZR is terrible even tons of people actually bought it.
Motorola really needs to come up with a better UI.
Kenneth
Addicted to MacNN
Joined: Mar 1999
UI
10/25, 04:32pm reply
I currently use KRAZOR. It's a slick looking phone but the UI is sucks. Comparing to my last phone, Samsung, which has a better UI.
coffeetime
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2006
new product...
10/25, 04:55pm reply
MotoNoGo
Motorola needs to step that s*** up and stop riding the wake of their RAZR fad with more of the same stuff_
Sorry - but the RAZR2 doesn't have anything much new over the RAZR - maybe a slightly flashy new shell - but I still like the RAZR shell better_
Oh yeah - they upped the camera from 1.3 to 2.0 Megapixels_
Otherwise - buyers get more bang for the buck from an equally priced iPhone_
Oh wait - did I just say that - the Moto RAZR2 is comparibly priced to the iPhone - but has less features_ And all those folks bitching about how the iPhone was sooooo f****** expensive_ Boo-hoo_
UberFu
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Joined: Oct 2002