Early indications are the that new Motorola Razr2 may not have had such a hot fourth quarter.
According to Bloomberg "Motorola probably sold 2 million Razr 2s, the slimmer camera phones (the company) is relying on to revive revenue, in the fourth quarter, said Lawrence Harris, a former Oppenheimer & Co. analyst in New York. Steve Jobs’s Apple may have sold 2.4 million iPhones."
That is at the heart of the problem when the market looks at turning MOT around. The first edition of the Razr was such a success that it has been imitated by Nokia (NOK), Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. In the eyes of many investors the product has been bested by the iPhone and consumer versions of RIM’s (RIMM) Blackberry.
Motorola probably needs to show that it sold 40 million handsets in Q4. Anything less than that tells Wall St. that it is still losing share to other companies and turning the company around will become more difficult as 2008 passes. The market for handsets is getting more crowded but it is not clear that Motorola’s products are any better.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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