Motorola’s Mobile Devices Unit Still Losing Less Per Quarter Thanks to Android
Even if Motorola’s still trying to bounce back from a long period of slow sales and lack of innovation, they’re still turning that big ship around with Android and is headed safely for shore without worry of deadly icebergs. They announced their second quarter financial results this morning, and while they don’t sound all too impressive compared to – say – HTC’s numbers, they are definitely a sign that Motorola’s headed back in the right direction.
The mobile devices unit generated revenue of $1.7 billion last quarter – which is quite impressive – but they are still down 6% from the same quarter a year ago. A lot of their income came from legal settlements that Motorola was able to put into the books this past month (namely the lawsuits Motorola filed against several technology companies – including RIM of Blackberry fame – over patent disputes). Still, their resurgence into the mobile handset market thanks to the advent of Android has helped them cut their overall operating loss by more than half (around 54%) compared to just a year ago ($239 million in Q2 2009 compared to $109 million in Q2 2010).
Motorola pegs their latest Android handset – the Motorola Droid X – as a key factor in strengthening their market position. They also didn’t forget to thank all of their other Android handsets – around 12 so far – which include the Motorola Charm, Motorola Flipout, the Motorola i1 push-to-talk phone, and more. Of the 8.3 million handsets shipped in the second quarter, 2.7 million of those run the Android operating system. According to Reuters, Motorola surpassed Wall Street’s expectations for the quarter (even if only by a small amount) meaning they continue to remain on the right track.
Under co-CEO and mobile devices president Sanjay Jha’s direction, Motorola’s adopted Android as their exclusive operating system for all their smartphone offerings and the payoff has been quite tremendous, to say the least. It’s a trend that continues not only with Motorola, but with all of their competitors as well. It’s one of the main reasons Android’s gotten so much support from hardware manufacturers to date: show people that you can change the entire scope and direction of your business, and they will proudly wave your green flag without fear. Click over to Motorola’s site for the full financial results.