“Motorola Inc., the biggest U.S. mobile-phone maker, forecast an unexpected loss after profit fell 84 percent last quarter, as customers fled to Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.,” Ville Heiskanen reports for Bloomberg.
“Motorola fell 16 percent to $10.30 in early trading. That puts the stock at its lowest since September 2003,” Heiskanen reports.
“Phone sales will drop ‘significantly’ in the next three months after plunging 38 percent in the fourth quarter, CEO Greg Brown said today on a conference call. Motorola devices such as the Razr 2, the sequel to its best-selling model, are failing to keep consumers away from Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Sync camera handset,” Heiskanen reports. “‘Their phones are just not selling through, they’re struggling with their lineup,’ Piper Jaffray & Co.’s Michael Walkley said in an interview. ‘The overall health of the market is fine; these problems are Motorola-specific.'”
“Motorola is the third major technology company to report disappointing results in the past week, heightening concerns customers are spending less amid slowing economic growth. Both Intel Corp. and Apple slumped after their sales forecasts fell short of analysts’ projections,” Heiskanen reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple smashed analysts’ consensus estimates and reported the best quarterly revenue and earnings in the company’s history. If you lump that in with others under the term “disappointing results,” you’re a stone cold moron.
Heiskanen continues, “Motorola’s share of global phone sales fell to 13.1 percent in the third quarter from 20.7 percent a year earlier, according to Stamford, Connecticut-based researcher Gartner Inc. Nokia increased its market share to 38.1 percent in the third quarter, while Samsung boosted its share to 14.5 percent, according to Gartner. Sony Ericsson lifted its share to 8.8 percent.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Motorola Chairman and CEO Ed Zander says his company is ready for competition from Apple’s iPhone, due out next month. “How do you deal with that?” Zander was asked at the Software 2007 conference Wednesday in Santa Clara, Calif. Zander quickly retorted, “How do they deal with us?” – IDG News Service, May 10, 2007
