Motorola reports first growth quarter since 2008

By on Oct 28, 2010 at 8:27 AM
General October 28, 2010

Motorola announced its Q3 results on Thursday and while the seemingly imminent arrival of the Verizon iPhone weighs heavily on investors’ minds, Motorola managed to report its best quarter in some time. Sales in the third quarter were up 13% year over year to $4.9 billion and phone revenue came in at $2 billion, up 20% from the year prior. Motorola shipped 9.1 million cell phones in Q3, 3.8 million of which were smartphones. Smartphone shipments beat the Street’s estimates, which typically fell between 3.5 and 3.6 million. Motorola also stated that its total cash on hand rose to $9 billion. Motorola’s business relies heavily on its current deal with Verizon Wireless, where its DROID-branded smartphones are a central draw that Verizon spends big marketing dollars on. Should Verizon finally manage to launch a CDMA version of the Apple iPhone next year, which is looking increasingly likely, it could spell trouble for Moto.

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29 Comments

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  • Norm

    Yes yes yes!! Motorola can thank VZW and the makers of the DROID OS for saving them from certain failure. Apple takes notes and adopt DROID OS or face bankruptcy.

  • PAPINYC

    Why does this site stick iPhone/Apple into every article? The headline read, “Motorola reports first growth quarter since 2008.”

    • destardi

      Well, even if “Moto faces trouble from the iPhone”, it won’t take long for them to be on top, as people try out the iphone after having Droid and decide it sucks in comparison.

      The iPhone will reach a peak on Verizon, and then what…the same old phone, for a year at a time, vs. Android on sooo many different phones at sooo many different price points.

      The end result is Android being universal, and embedded in every possible product imaginable; your home, your car, etc and so on.

      Android ftw.

  • JM

    Motorola might benefit from offering good products on a carrier other than Verizon. I liked most of my previous Motorola phones…even smartphones.

    It is odd to see the iPhone mentioned in places where it really isn’t necessary.

  • PAPINYC

    BTW, since this is all about Apple and how the world iRevolves around it, where’s the article about iPad being available at Verizon starting today. Available in bundled packages with
    Mi-Fi Mobile Hotspot, take your pick:

    16GB $629
    32GB $729
    64GB $829

    ‘All the magic of iPad. All the nationwide power and reliability of Verizon.’

    • http://www.bgr.com Zach Epstein

      Don’t worry – it’s scheduled for later this morning.

  • Bring Home the Whopper

    How about fixing the 2.2 PROBLEMS with Droid X so we all can be happy.

    • Donny

      No kidding. I miss using my music player. I miss not having my phone randomly restart. 2.2 was half baked for the X and it is motos fault with their stupid ass motosh!t UI they felt so compelled to throw on….

      • Bring Home the Whopper

        Root your X and delete the music player then install PlayerPro problem fixed. The rebooting problem no fix is a pain can’t fix that yet.

      • Donny

        Thanks. I’m a bit of a noob to android but I think it’s time to learn how to root. Any suggestions on where to go to learn how to root the x?

      • Bring Home the Whopper
      • Donny

        Thank you. Ill check it out later. Hopefully I don’t brick my phone and I can finally rid myself of the bloat.

      • T

        I haven’t looked at the link, but there should be an SPF file on that site as well that would un-brick the phone should you encounter an error. I’ve successfully bricked and unbricked my Droid before… ;-)

  • bori baby

    motorola should just make the stood for every carrier. Not everyone like vzw or att or Tmo

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • V for Ve

    iPhone is important because it is a very important part of the competitive landscape where Motorola operates. Every news site will mention iPhone when talking about Motorola’s numbers as they are so dependent on the smartphones.
    When iPhone comes to Verizon, Motorola’s dominance in Verizon’s smartphone lineup will be affected, just like the loss of iPhone exclusivity will affect at&t’s numbers.

    But on the flip side, both Motorola and other carriers especially at&t will form relationships and get some at&t avertising muscle behind them. So the competitive landscape will be more even footed, which is better for the comnsumer.

  • MacMan

    This is coming to an end when the iPhone hits verizon.

    • destardi

      Yea…because no one thinks differently than you.

      Wait..”think different”…yet millions of people have the same phone with lousy antennae?

      ok, sure.

  • Gaza

    I cannot see how people can actually question WHY the iPhone is being mentioned in this article. It’s a fact that these NUMBERS that are being talked about will be affected once the iPhone comes to Verizon; there is a direct relation.

  • patrick

    Yeah. If they keep screwing up android os they won’t keep up this trend. Will most likely buy htc next time. Droid x and they have all but ruined 2.2 . Only way I would buy one would be if they did it with a easily hacked and modded bootloader. And with a one button pre-installed rooting process. Otherwise they are not gonna see growth like this a year from now.

    • Appfan (aka Google Hater)

      A one button pre-installed rooting process would spell doom for any company’s support group. I agree that they shouldn’t do everything in their power to prevent rooting, but they don’t have to serve it up like that.

  • MicroNix

    So where are all the geniuses that keep saying moto and htc can’t make a profit off of Android phones? Eat some crow boys!!

    • ljp

      You should read the actual earnings report. Their mobile division saw $2.06 billion in revenue and posted a GAAP $43 million operating loss and a non-GAAP operating earnings of $3 million dollars. $3 million in profit on $2 billion in revenue isn’t much to get excited about considering RIM saw $797 million in profit on $4.62 billion in revenue.

      Sure, they had more sales than expected but they also added more smartphones from the last quarter and even more from their first quarter. They had 2.3 million in sales over 8 devices in the first quarter, now they have 3.8 million in sales over 22 devices. One of those numbers tripled and one of them…didn’t.

    • LJohn

      You’re proud of a company that made a dollar profit off of each smartphone sold? If you count featurephones plus smartphones, they made a profit of less than $.35 on each phone sold.

  • Al

    Not 2008, but 2006. A milestone and turning point for Moto. And a fact vs cheap shots.

  • LJohn

    With their mobile unit posting an operating profit of $3 million, that means their 3.8 million smartphones added up to less than a dollar profit per unit sold. Wow.

    • LJohn

      Data taken from their release: “Mobile Devices segment sales were $2.0 billion, up 20 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. The GAAP operating loss was $43 million compared to an operating loss of $216 million in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP operating earnings were $3 million compared to an operating loss of $183 million in the year-ago quarter.”

  • Plan B

    I just like that old sign BGR used – looks good.

  • Perspective

    Droid Does. . .$1 profit per phone.

    • MicroNix

      Just think, it would be $0 profit per phone if they had to include a bumper with every one of them…

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