Motorola and SE pinpointed, may face tough time "weathering the storm"

No, not that Storm silly -- that storm. As cellphone users around the globe put off that once imminent upgrade purchase in order to make the mortgage and feed the family, (most) handset makers are obviously feeling the pinch. A fresh report from The Wall Street Journal pretty much reiterates much of what we've already heard, but still dives deeper into which companies are best positioned to escape the madness. As predicted, HTC, Apple and Nokia were all pinpointed as being able to make it through tough economic times without losing their proverbial hats, but both Motorola and Sony Ericsson could be facing insurmountable odds. Granted, it's not like either firm has really been killing it of late, but it's a pretty bad time to be struggling, regardless. The takeaway? Don't be shocked to see some wild stuff go down in the mobile space -- all bets are off at this point.

[Image courtesy of DayLife, thanks JagsLive]

[GON @ Nov 17th 2008 9:33AM]

Ah the Cingular logo. Memories :)

[Fourteenfourkbps @ Nov 17th 2008 9:42AM]

yeah, bad memories.....ah who am I kidding, AT&T logo=bad memories now too...

[ran @ Nov 17th 2008 9:57AM]

Mmmm, unbranded phones

[OneLove @ Nov 17th 2008 11:51AM]

Am still waiting for the HTC Touch HD, now available at sprint, announcement

[Dave @ Nov 17th 2008 9:59AM]

make good products and your sales won't be affected.

[spam_free @ Nov 17th 2008 10:45AM]

Make a decent product at a decent price is more like it. The Xperia is nice, but at that price, it's not going to win many brownie points. Imagine GM coming out with a $100k Corvette to try to save itself and you get the picture.

[Jae @ Nov 17th 2008 11:07AM]

@spam_free: GM has come out with a $100k Corvette (ZR1) but with bad timing. Obviously they're not looking for it alone to save them but I just wanted to point that out.

[Aaron @ Nov 17th 2008 10:03AM]

Prediction: Motorola will try to spin off their phone division and fail. Eventually an Asian manufacturer will buy the rights to their trademarks and patents but the rest of the company will effectively vanish.

[YpoCaramel @ Nov 17th 2008 10:31AM]

Eh? Motorola's cell phone operations are a pretty small part of their entire line, 5-15% of sales IIRC. The company as a whole was profitable last year despite harsh economic conditions in the later half - selling off their cell phone line isn't going to kill them.

[spam_free @ Nov 17th 2008 10:51AM]

I agree with Ypo. Moto's handset division is deadweight. The rest of the company does a fairly healthy business. That's why they're trying so desperately to sell off the cellphone tumor. But at this point, even the brand may not bring much interest from prospective buyers. There're enough crappy moto phones out there to effectively dilute the once-great brand into irrelevance.

[iamdigitalman @ Nov 17th 2008 10:06AM]

yesh, c139. what a piece of junk. Even worthless busted. I entered it in the broken phone contest engadget had, and it did not win.

[BratPAQ @ Nov 17th 2008 10:08AM]

SE should learn. hyping the xperia then on release, bad reviews came out, i mean why didnt they gather this "bad reviews" months before releasing the phone so they can fix it?

[Fusion Fuzo @ Nov 17th 2008 10:12AM]

Sony will servive, motorola will hopefully go bankrupt

[tekman94 @ Nov 17th 2008 11:15AM]

Why do you hope Motorola goes bankrupt?? They are the only US company that makes cell phones. Yeah, they may not be MADE in the US but that isn't the point. If the US looses any more company's (ex. Moto, the Big 3, Microsoft, Apple,) WE ARE SCREWED as a country. So think a bit about the consequences before you say you want a company to go bankrupt or out of business.

[BlurMagic @ Nov 17th 2008 11:57AM]

"They are the only US company that makes cell phones. Yeah, they may not be MADE in the US but that isn't the point."

Actually, that is the point. How american is an american company that has all it's factories overseas? Isn't that the point of Made in America? lol. It's not bringing anymore jobs to the U.S. Motorola has plenty of other endeavours they are making money on. Their cellphone dept. could go bankrupt and it would just be a drop in the bucket, because really, if it mattered to them, they would be pumping out alot better product then they are. Nice flame fail though.

Oh and Apple and Microsoft make products overseas too. But both of those companys have HUGE amounts of employers. So much, that they have to have "campuses" Comparing Motorola to Apple and Microsoft was also a FAIL. Not even close to being a good comparison.

[JSWinston @ Nov 18th 2008 10:48AM]

@BlurMagic
Actually Motorola does have multiple campuses, some are huge (bigger than Apples and I have been to both).

Oh, and Motorola's cell phone division employs a lot of American employees. It is true that Motorola does not manufacture here, but they employ a lot of engineers and support personal. Even the recent layoffs hit Motorola Europe much more than in the US.
Motorola is an American icon and the loss would be terrible. Hopefully they can start selling a lot more phones. I would rather get an American phone than a Finnish or Chinese one.
In other words, don't talk about stuff you have no idea about.

[JSWinston @ Nov 18th 2008 10:48AM]

@BlurMagic
Actually Motorola does have multiple campuses, some are huge (bigger than Apples and I have been to both).

Oh, and Motorola's cell phone division employs a lot of American employees. It is true that Motorola does not manufacture here, but they employ a lot of engineers and support personal. Even the recent layoffs hit Motorola Europe much more than in the US.
Motorola is an American icon and the loss would be terrible. Hopefully they can start selling a lot more phones. I would rather get an American phone than a Finnish or Chinese one.
In other words, don't talk about stuff you have no idea about.

[Paul @ Nov 17th 2008 10:26AM]

Smart phone have become more affordable than ever... You can get the G1 for $180 and the Storm for $200. Although the iPhone isn't a smart phone it is one hell of a phone and it is also only $200.

[holycow @ Nov 17th 2008 11:08AM]

I think Motorola won't be able to survive and will be swiped up by Microsoft. *insert sad moto logo here*

[Skorp.S @ Nov 17th 2008 11:45AM]

Nokia and Samsung shouldn't have problem to survive considering Nokia who got cash to spare for next 100 years(and while still missing 6300 like huge profit maker that 5800 is expected to be, made €1.09bn profit last quarter) and Samsung who is doing better than ever. To this day phone market have been growing rapidly and no doubt those days will be over or at least the rate will go down.

It's intresting to see if Moto or SE would really start losing their hold, who would fill the void? My bet would be Samsung while Nokia keeping the 38-40% market share.

[Stan @ Nov 17th 2008 12:39PM]

I am fond of SE phones and have one now. However imho, it will be very difficult for SE to survive with the dismal 3Q results, and layoff announcements. They have a strong Java 8 platform for most of their phones, but the Xperia their flagship phone, got Windows instead of SE's UIQ which was used on their high end/smart phones. UIQ, itself has announced massive layoffs. While everyone was excited when the X1 was announced, the use of WinMobile and the delays were a turn-off for many customers. We could almost say that SE has failed to differentiate their phones from anyone else, as the UIQ phones were the only ones with touch screens and it seems that SE didn't have enough faith in the UIQ platform to use it for the X1.

SE's phones are bought by people who like the camera models which are very good, or the walkman stuff which is good for the casual music/pod listener. People who are really serious about music get iphone/ipods since they think that is the only thing out there. SE's market was mostly Europe, and Apple's released the iphones there. SE has a number of mid-range models that have Desktop RSS, GPS and Video conferencing on the Java platform, but they suffer from battery issues when these items are actually used. All their phones have push email, syncML, and Exchange. Full contact information (home + business info, personal info) and fully sync with Outlook (and some with Lotus). And even non-Walkman branded phones have the Walkman application in them. ATT is offering streaming video (HBO, Comedy Central, MLB Gameday, etc) on some SE models along with XM radio.. They don't have the money to advertise the superior base functionality of thier phones to many others on the market.

If people move to iphones for music, and only care about the SE camera phones and their low-mid range designer phones, there isn't much place for SE to make money even if SE customers turn over their phones frequently.

[keppo @ Nov 17th 2008 1:11PM]

One of SE's problem is the strong Sony brands Walkman an Cybershot. They make good music phones and good camera phones but refuse to make an all-in-one product. Now, some people don't care about the camera or the music features, but there are a lot of people who like to have both in their phones. If they want to buy SE, they basically have to boy two phones.

When Nokia announced the N95 someone from SE stated that they don't believe that an all-in-one phone like N95 could be succesful. The rest is history.

[Skorp.S @ Nov 17th 2008 1:15PM]

Iphone might have some effect too, but it's more about the downfall that was started by N95, 6300(estimated to sold over 20 million in 2007), 5310XM(over 11 million sold), 6500s/c that made SE's strong points mid music and camera lost big part of it's brand power(Chypershot and Walkman) attached to a phones. I mean they don't even have 3.5 jack on their WALKMAN phones and Chypershot phones can't record over 15fp VGA quality that all Nokias and Samsung 5mp and over camera phones can do. Thought SE's new 8mp C905 can take some quality pics. Just pitty with the same 15fps.

Considering that SE got Sony behind them it's not easy to understand why they don't they shine on these areas like they once did when they where giving Nokia hard time in 2003-2004. Thought hopefully SE survives because i got some faith that they can still make killer phone.

[Dante @ Nov 17th 2008 12:54PM]

They deserved it for creating same shitty phone under different skin

[Stan @ Nov 17th 2008 6:43PM]

"I mean they don't even have 3.5 jack on their WALKMAN phones"

This is a mis-understood. SE phones come with a proprietary jack for charging, audio in/out, and as an antennae for FM. This short cord, connects to a 3.5mm jack. They also have headphones and handsfree that attach directly to the phone. I've had phones and other devices with 3.5 jacks, they loosen up, they don't hold tight to the phone and sometimes there are variances on the left/right connections, the SE jacks DO NOT HAVE THESE ISSUES, and you can use ANY headphone you like if you wish. And if your phone didn't come with the short connector, they cost under $5 at many web retailers. They have a great bluetooth stereo solution anyway.

The same thing goes for the bluetooth stereo wireless headset they have, HBH-DS980 - people complain that it doesn't have a micro USB connection for connecting. However, it can be charged with the same charger that charges any SE phone. It's a good solid connection thanks to the 'prongs' on it. It's not going to be accidently pulled out.

[ashraf @ Nov 24th 2008 12:04PM]

bad