Motorola cellphones suffer, Sony-Ericsson rises

Motorola's cellphone business is struggling, the company has revealed in its latest financial report. The company's spring quarter saw the firm sell no more than $8.7 million in cellphones and other handhelds -- significantly less than the $9.4 billion expected. The shortfall will leave the company facing a loss even if the rest of the year is successful and is said to primarily be the result of poor Asian and European sales, where Motorola's name and influence are historically weaker than in the US. In reacting to the results, the company has shifted its supply chain executive Stu Reed to the head of its Mobile Devices group in the hope of saving the company's efforts.

In contrast, Sony-Ericsson today revealed that its number of cellphones sold had jumped 59 percent compared to last year, spiking profit by about 54 percent. The Japanese-Swedish partnership is already known to fare well in Europe and credited much of the expansion to new lower-cost phones such as the W200, which it admitted hurt its profits but also gave it better access to Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, where lower-cost devices are more likely to dominate.

The contrast highlights Motorola's increasingly crucial moves to upgrade its cellphone technology, which many have said remained largely stale after the success of the original RAZR. The company only recently adding HSDPA Internet, better media playback, and a needed upgrade in software to the RAZR2 and other high-profile phones.