Motorola posts $3.6b loss as devices sales fall by 26 percent
By Nilay Patel 
posted Feb 3rd 2009 11:38AM
posted Feb 3rd 2009 11:38AM
Things just aren't getting any better for Motorola -- just weeks after the troubled phone manufacturer announced deep layoffs, it's revealing that it lost $3.6 billion dollars in the fourth quarter. The loss is mainly attributed to falling device sales: handsets were down 26 percent, and mobile devices total were down 51 percent. According to Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha, the answer for now is Android phones, which the company thinks will be more competitive than WinMo devices in 2009 -- and he interestingly said that Moto plans on continuing to make Windows Mobile devices because it thinks WinMo 7 will be a big deal when it comes out in 2010. That's the first time we've ever heard a date on WinMo 7, if you're keeping track -- and if it's right, it'll be the second time Jha's blown the lid on an upcoming version of Windows Mobile. Whoops! We'll be watching that one, but for now here's hoping Moto rights the ship with something like an Android-based SURF A3100 -- otherwise it may not even be around in 2010.
inb4iEye
don't be stupid please.
Oh man, and Moto's former CTO, Padmasree Warrior, is one of two remaining candidates for the new government CTO job? Sounds like she jumped shipped to Cisco just in time, to watch from a distance, the company she helped run into the ground. Not the track record of someone I want running the new CTO position.
http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/report-u-s-cto-candidates-narrowed/2009-01-18?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss&cmp-id=OTC-RSS-FT0
right...she used to be a GM for our Motorola division for less than one year...it was just a stepping stone for her...came in...point fingers...then left for Motorola Chicago CTO corporate job ...nothing achieved...
...but once they choose you as a "golden child," then you can't do no wrong...
Wrong. Padmasree was one of the few great members of the SLT. Plenty of fault to go around there, you don't need to blame the ones that were actually doing their jobs well.
That's what you get for making crap phones!
werd. it's like the moto engineers have no clue what crap they put out in the past 4 years.
I'm not surprised with this news. Moto hasn't done anything in 5 years that I would call eventful
That is categorically untrue.
They spent the last 5 years working on a device to travel back in time to the release of the RAZR. They have failed.
I would hardly call this breaking, Engadget. After all, it's you guys posting about how Motorola is dying slowly.
Yeah...Moto is not doing so hot. I think that the competition is killing off Moto. Competition is good for consumers but not always for companies that either can't keep up with the times or do not want to 'innovate'. Technologically speaking, it's a whirlwind of an atmosphere right now. At one time, the iPhone was THE standard to beat, now even it is scrambling to match up with the likes of touchscreen sybmian OS (N97/5800) and even the up and coming Palm Pre. I am personally waiting to see how the Palm Pre pans out and possibly get the unlocked GSM version.
Never really liked Motorola. I don't think they did anything special after Startac or whatever that was called.
The Razr was popular, IN AMERICA, but it's UI was made of mud and poop.
too bad my wife works for Moto...
Double post on RSS?
Tell me that this new motorola icon doesn't look like a madonna t*ts icon?!
Sony is jealous of Moto's ability to post larger billion dollar losses.
Yep not looking too good for Moto. Mind you, not looking too good for many companies out there at the moment. They are probably not any worse, they just loose more because they have more.
Free Motorola Unlocking
http://www.motounlockuk.com
@ oakie @ Feb 3rd 2009 12:55PM
werd. it's like the moto engineers have no clue what crap they put out in the past 4 years.
-------------------------
My friend the engineers have no control of what bad decisions upper mgt makes plain and simple.
When Brown took over, MD was already hurting badly....instead of shutting down LJ group wich was behind by a year and half, and also shutting down other platforms he didnt do a single thing, instead he brought Sanjay to do that for him...
On top of all this manure...they decided to have lay off after lay off 4k, people here, 7k, people there...and yet they still push for engineers to meet the deadlines to ship the products on time.
MOST of the people laid off where from the U.S. the job was shipped over seas and they expected these organizations to pick up the slack right away wrong!!!...
Now look who is paying for those decisions...not brown, or the managers, is the engineers...
Thats the only thing Motorola is known for now is how to lay people off...
Now I saw this and I chuckle: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/31/motorola-zn300-looks-possibly-okay-sort-of/
Heres the honest truth this phone is a piece of crap is based off p2k platform using a TI Processorr.The hardware is made by a 3rd party vendor, and maybe 5-15% of the code was made develop here in the US..rest contractors....when I tested this phone 3 weeks ago with the latest SW build it was slow, UI was sluggish and there were issues with call processing......
I would not be using this phone even if someone gave it to me for free...and yes we all told Management 6 months ago this phone was hidious....meh am out of that pit of vipers.
sorry for the wall of text, and no I will not be buying into their whole Andriod campaign, not when theyre sacrificing quality..something they have been doing for the past 8+ years.
@ oakie @ Feb 3rd 2009 12:55PM
werd. it's like the moto engineers have no clue what crap they put out in the past 4 years.
-------------------------
My friend the engineers have no control of what bad decisions upper mgt makes plain and simple.
When Brown took over, MD was already hurting badly....instead of shutting down LJ group wich was behind by a year and half, and also shutting down other platforms he didnt do a single thing, instead he brought Sanjay to do that for him...
On top of all this manure...they decided to have lay off after lay off 4k, people here, 7k, people there...and yet they still push for engineers to meet the deadlines to ship the products on time.
MOST of the people laid off where from the U.S. the job was shipped over seas and they expected these organizations to pick up the slack right away wrong!!!...
Now look who is paying for those decisions...not brown, or the managers, is the engineers...
Thats the only thing Motorola is known for now is how to lay people off...
Now I saw this and I chuckle: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/31/motorola-zn300-looks-possibly-okay-sort-of/
Heres the honest truth this phone is a piece of crap is based off p2k platform using a TI Processorr.The hardware is made by a 3rd party vendor, and maybe 5-15% of the code was made develop here in the US..rest contractors....when I tested this phone 3 weeks ago with the latest SW build it was slow, UI was sluggish and there were issues with call processing......
I would not be using this phone even if someone gave it to me for free...and yes we all told Management 6 months ago this phone was hidious....meh am out of that pit of vipers.
sorry for the wall of text, and no I will not be buying into their whole Andriod campaign, not when theyre sacrificing quality..something they have been doing for the past 8+ years.
With the Symbol acquisition I can't imagine Motorola giving up on the Windows Mobile Platform any time soon since all of the Symbol stuff is CE/Mobile based.