[Ben]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/23/motorola_q42007_earnings/

Despite a new CEO, there are no signs yet of a turnaround for Motorola. The company's mobile phone division recorded a shocking quarter, with the unit's revenues down 38 per cent year-on-year, losing $388m along the way. Motorola's mobile division recorded a $1.2bn loss in 2007.

The mobile phone business netted $4.8bn, shifting 40.9 million handsets. For the full year, mobile revenues were down 33 per cent to $19bn.
Click here to find out more!

Overall, the company made a Razr-slim profit of $51m for the final quarter of calender year 2007, on net sales of $9.6bn, down from $623m net income and $11.79bn revenue a year ago.

Performance was helped by Home and Networks earning $192m net income on revenue of $2.7bn - with greater sales but lower profits than a year ago. The enterprise mobility division, buoyed by the acquisition of the Symbol business, rose to $2.1bn sales and $451m net income.

The company spent $557m in the quarter buying back its own shares. Motorola said it expects the grim news to continue, with a loss projected for Q1 2008.
And so the sad decline of Motorola continues. It's hard to comprehend the scale of the failure, given that only a few years ago they were at the forefront of 3G (miles ahead of Nokia, who know well-and-truly rule) and launching the RAZR!

[miffed]

TBH I get a sort of warm feeling reading this

Motorolas place at the top wasn't really Justified IMO - OK so they had some good GSM stuff , back in the days before cameras and colour screens ,and their early 3G efforts were the best of a very bad bunch...
.... But since then , you get probably get away with using a blanket phrase "Motorola's are crap !" and not be accused of being unreasonable
Sometimes , you can read something and it simply doesn't compute in your brain , like when I hear that S60 is the leading OS ( :confused: beats me ! )
But here we have something that completely makes sense in my simple mind -
Poor products = No sales

At last there is some logic in the world :D

[Hands0n]

I am rather with Miffed on this one. While I hate to see any firm go under I do feel that Motorola have brought it upon themselves.

Apart from the RAZR, a format that they have milked for all it is worth, Motorola have had nothing more than a completely lacklustre appearance in the mobile world. I cannot think of a single handset - the E1000 excepted - that I would have liked or wanted from Motorola. The entire product range are, well, to be honest, too American for my liking. And I do think that is the trouble.

The American's think that they are global leaders in everything and anything. But their introverted view of the world has caused them to miss what is happening in Europe and the rest of the real world. To offer as evidence, look at the mess they made of Mobile networks in their own land. They eschewed GSM in favour for whatever technologies they wanted locally, locking themselves in their own closet in effect. Meanwhile the rest of the world got on with GSM and did it very well indeed.

Think about this, there is hardly a country in the world where you cannot take your GSM handset and have it work! Even the Africas and other third-world nations are becoming empowered by GSM and 3G (UMTS) technology. Yet go to the USA and unless you are in an area with GSM you are dead out of the water! Ok fair enough, there is a lot of GSM out there, especially in the major conurbations - but it is not always that way, and this is 2008!

Now this may all sound like American-bashing, but I don't mean it to be. Rather to explain how [I think] the American Motorola corp has got itself into this particular corner. To us Europeans and mostly the rest of the world Motorola no longer innovates. The aesthetic appeal of their handsets is either not that appealing or is of a very old and tired format. Some of the design is distinctly Buck Rogers or retro - and we don't find that at all interesting. Contrast Nokia and quite a few of the Far Eastern manufacturers whos handsets are a visual delight and very practical to use, oh and very advanced. Face it, what has Motorola got to stand against the Nokia N95 or some of the Sony Ericsson K and W series?

No, I'm sorry but Motorola find themselves at a place of their own making. We shouldn't be too hard on them because they are stuck in a mindset that believes it is right all of the time and the rest of the world is wrong. It is a pity, for Motorola, that they cannot do what Apple has done with the iPhone. But then again, Motorola have nothing that is even close to hype up to the hilt.

So, farewell Motorola - it wasn't that good even while it lasted.