The rumored RAZR sequel, initially referred to as Ruby, has reemerged with the name Motorola V13. Reports late last year suggested the company decided to drop the entire project. However the device was recently approved by the Bluetooth SIG, likely indicating Motorola has continued to push forward with the Ruby.
Motorola on Tuesday reported further trouble for its recent fall quarter with both an immediate financial hit as well as ongoing drops in its phone shipments. The company says it posted a net loss of $3.6 billion during the three-month period ended in December and pins much of the responsibility on its Mobile Device group, whose losses ave only deepened year-over-year from $388 million in late 2007 to $595 million. Motorola blames drop on the economy and points to its 7,000 job cuts and a just-announced suspension of its usual cash dividend to shareholders as steps taken to rescue its business.
The Apple iPhone and RIM BlackBerry Curve have taken the place of cheaper devices as the most popular mediums for downloading cellphone games, according to a new comScore study. The iPhone in particular is said to have accounted for 14 percent of all game downloads in November, helping to displace Motorola's RAZR -- and other low- to mid-range devices -- as a primary platform. Some 32.4 percent of iPhone users are said to have downloaded a game in the month, compared to an industry average of just 3.8 percent.
Korean electronics giant LG has overtaken Motorola for the third-place spot in world phone shipments this past year, tips reportedly passed on from within the company suggest. While no public tally is available, LG is said to have internally estimated that it has shipped about 100 million phones throughout the course of 2008, putting it just ahead of an estimated 99.9 million from its American rival. The number would also edge out Sony Ericsson's 96.6 million.
Motorola could slash as much as half of the workforce in its mobile devices group very shortly, an apparent tip to Phone Scoop suggests. The company is reportedly set to start major layoffs this week that would drop 50 percent of the staff and is said to be dramatically scaling back its phone development as a whole. Most if not all development for smartphones is already believed to be switching exclusively to Android while Motorola's own phone introductions may scale back to as few as 12 devices per year.
Motorola is bringing its current plans for its iconic RAZR line to an end, according to a Russian claim. Accompanied by a photo of the prototype in question, the tip asserts that Motorola has shelved a device codenamed the Ruby that would likely have been titled the RAZR3. Reasons for the move are unclear, though the phone has been based on the Symbian-related UIQ interface where Motorola now plans to focus on Android and Windows Mobile as part of its bid to recover its mobile phone business, effectively dooming the current choice of operating system.
Apple's second-wave push for the iPhone has already made it the most popular phone on the web, a study of October data from AdMob indicates. The mobile ad provider notes that total worldwide iPhone share for ad requests nearly doubled from 2.1 percent in September to 4.1 percent the following month, bringing it from fourth place to first. The previous leader, Motorola's RAZR V3, has held on to its second place spot but dropped substantially from 4.1 percent to 3.4 percent of all requests to AdMob.
The iPhone 3G outsold even Motorola's ubiquitous RAZR V3 cellphone to take the lead in the US cellphone market during the summer, according to the NPD Group. The July 11th launch and continued strong sales have reportedly put an end to the RAZR's three-year stint at the top of sales rankings in the country and is said by the researchers to signal a "watershed shift" away from purely designer-focused phones towards smartphones and other advanced devices where messaging is important.
Samsung today surprised the cellphone business by claiming the lead in US phone sales for the summer based on a Strategy Analytics report [membership required]. The company edged out Motorola, the long-time holder of the position, by earning 22.4 percent of the American market versus US-native Motorola's 21.1 percent. LG followed close behind and now threatens to overtake either of the two leaders with 20.5 percent of sales following steady increases in recent months.
Motorola today saw its problems mount with news of its summer quarterly results. The company swung from a $60 million profit at the same point in 2007 to a $397 million loss this year due almost exclusively to poor performance from the Mobile Devices group and its cellphone business. Phone shipments plunged a sharp 32 percent year-over-year to 25.4 million handsets and also the company's gross margin on phones dip from 28.4 percent to 24.1 percent as the mix shifted towards lower-cost devices.
Apple has the room to cut the price of the iPhone to where it could take command of the smartphone market, analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham Research says today in a research note. The financial expert estimates that the average, unsubsidized price of an iPhone 3G in the summer was $666 and so would give Apple a nearly 50 percent gross margin on each sale as well as a heavy subsidy from AT&T of $450. Both give Apple a large amount of space to adjust its price and could see the phone maker drop the price of an 8GB iPhone to $99 while still supplying a comfortable 42.3 percent margin.
Despite four years on the market, Motorola's RAZR V3 is still the best-selling cellphone in the US, the NPD Group says. While exact market share isn't published, the researchers put the clamshell design above the second-place iPhone 3G as well as the BlackBerry Curve, LG Chocolate and BlackBerry Pearl in the top five. The RAZR earns its position primarily through its sheer availability, as the device sells through nearly all major and minor carriers in the US and is often available for free or at a low price on a contract.
Apple has already shipped over three million units of the iPhone 3G, claims analyst Michael Cote, a former T-Mobile executive. If accurate, the figure may mark extremely high sales, far in excess of general Wall Street predictions between three to four million for the whole of the current quarter. The iPhone 3G is already believed to have sold approximately half the number of units the 2.5G model sold in its entire lifetime.
Motorola is placing nearly all its faith in a high-technology phone whose success or failure may determine the outcome of the company, according to a tip sent to BGR. The unnamed device (likely a future ZINE model) would have a previously hinted-at 8-megapixel camera but should also have true GPS and other features meant to draw attention in the crowded high-end field. It will also be one of the first devices to ship with NVIDIA's Tegra APX 2500 processor and should be fast enough to produce advanced 3D as well as HD-resolution video, according to the claims.
Despite its reputation as a web-focused device, the iPhone is still clearly in the minority on the web, according to a tracking study by advertising startup AdMob. Using April ad requests as a means of gauging phone web use, the company finds that the iPhone accounted for just 1.1 percent of cellphone traffic in the US and 0.8 percent worldwide. Both results are dominated by Motorola and Research in Motion phones, with the four-year-old RAZR V3 leading the ranks at 5.3 percent worldwide and 9.1 in its home country; the BlackBerry Pearl (2.6 percent and 5.1 percent) and BlackBerry Curve (1.5 percent and 2.9 percent) were fourth and fifth, the study notes.
The chief marketing executive at Motorola has made a sudden departure, the Wall Street Journal has revealed in a report. Brought to the company in October 2006, Kenneth Keller Jr. has largely been responsible for the latter half of the company's promotional campaign behind the RAZR and is known to have perpetuated the theme across most of the company's lineup, including the RAZR2 and spinoffs such as the ROKR line. No reason has been given for his departure, which remains unannounced by the company.
