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Tag: Motorola Droid

  • Motorola Mobility Shows an Increased First Quarter Operating Loss

    Motorola Mobility, the mobile and data division of Motorola, yesterday released its first quarter financial results showing the company has increased its operating loss from this time last year. Motorola Mobility’s first quarter GAAP operating loss was $86 million, up from $81 million in 2011. The financial tables released seem to show that the increased costs of sales, administrative expenses, and research and development make up much of the increase. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that lagging phone sales are the culprit.

    The Home division of Motorola Mobility, which provides voice and data solutions, is operating with a net gain, meaning the company’s mobile division is solely responsible for the loss. The Motorola Mobility CEO released a short statement that praised the Home division, but did not address the company’s growing operating loss:

    “The introduction of RAZR™ MAXX marked another successful addition to the Motorola product family and contributed to our growth in smartphones. Our Home business delivered another solid quarter highlighted by improvement in year-over-year profitability,” said Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobility. “We continue to work closely with Google to complete the proposed merger during the first half of the year.”

    It’s easy to see why Motorola is having to sink more money into their mobile division. Samsung has risen significantly in mobile markets over the past year, surpassing even Apple in smartphone sales. Also, the entire market for Android tablets has been disappointing, and was quickly dominated by Amazon’s Kindle Fire last year.

    Meanwhile, Motorola Mobility is still awaiting approval for their merger with Google. The only country still holding out on approving the deal is China, which was expected to make a decision by March 20. Motorola stated that it expects the deal to go through before the second half of 2012, meaning within the next two months.

    What do you think? Does Motorola have any chance to join the the mobile competition that seems to be ramping up between Samsung and Apple? Will the Google merger help them improve their Android devices, or is the Droid brand already falling behind? Leave a comment below and let us know.

  • Droid Beats iPhone In Sales Comparison

    There’s good and bad news for Google this morning with respect to Android and the mobile market.  In terms of how many units were sold during their first 74 days of availability, it seems the Droid beat the iPhone to the million-unit mark, but the Nexus One is lagging far behind.

    That’s the state of things according to Flurry, which claims that applications using its analytics tools have been embedded in more than 80 percent of iPhones and Android devices.  And anyone who’s suspicious of the firm’s stats should know that Goldman Sachs has used them as the basis for some forecasts, too.

    So on to the comparison.  You can see the results below.  FYI: Flurry picked a 74-day period because that’s how long Apple said it took for one million iPhones to sell.

    Flurry noted that the Droid enjoyed several advantages here.  First, the iPhone had already taught consumers about the benefits of smartphones.  Verizon also boasted more subscribers than AT&T, and the Droid launched towards the start of the holiday shopping season.

    Android can definitely compete with the iPhone, then.  The Nexus One’s lack of success just makes it hard to judge what sort of circumstances are needed to even the odds.

  • Mobile Phone Buyers Prefer Touchscreen Interface

    While text messaging continues to be the top motivating feature for mobile phone buyers, American consumers are increasingly purchasing handsets with touch screens or QWERTY keyboards, according to the latest report from The NPD Group.

    The report found all 10 of the top-selling mobile phones purchased in the fourth quarter of 2009 came with a touch screen, a QWERTY keyboard, or both.

    Ross-Rubin"Regargless of whether they opt for a data plan, consumers want richer user interface options," said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at NPD.

    "The humble keypad is losing the race to optimize a handset’s surface."

    Based on U.S. consumer purchases of mobile phones in Q4, the top 10 handsets were:

    1.    RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models)
    2.    LG enV3
    3.    Apple iPhone 3GS (both models)
    4.    Apple iPhone 3G
    5.    Motorola Droid
    6.    LG enV Touch
    7.    RIM Blackberry Tour
    8.    Samsung Intensity
    9.    Samsung Solstice
    10.    Samsung Impression

    In Q4 2009 Apple, LG and RIM all declined in unit share, and Motorola’s Droid, even with its mid-quarter launch, was the fifth most purchased mobile phone in the U.S.

    NPD also found that 46 percent of phones sold in Q4 had QWERTY keyboards (compared to 31 % in 2008) and 34 percent had touch screens (compared to 20% the prior year.)