Motorola: 2.7 million Android Smartphones shipped

Motorola announced stable figures for the second quarter of 2010 compared to last year, but a significantly improved net profit. Of the 8.3 million telephones shipped, 2.7 million were Android Smartphones.

Motorola continues to show improvement, with real progress having been made over the last few years. While earnings haven’t progressed, stable at 5.4 billion dollars (compared to 5.5 billion dollars last year), the operational profit has leapt forward from 10 million dollars in 2009 to 363 million dollars this quarter.

Motorola also recorded net profit of 162 million dollars compared to 26 million dollars a year ago, assuring earnings of 7 cents per share (compared to 1 cent a year ago). While not greatly increasing their business, the manufacturer has nevertheless improved their profitability, which will surely reassure investors.


Almost 3 million Android Smartphones shipped in three months
The mobile telephone division generated sales of 1.7 billion dollars, down 6% compared to last year, although the group recorded an operating profit of 87 million dollars (even if this was boosted by one off earnings of 228 million dollars), whereas the group recorded an operational loss of 287 million dollars last year.

Motorola shipped 8.3 million mobile handsets this quarter, with 2.7 million of these being Android Smartphones. This is still far from the 11 million Blackberry’s shipped by RIM or the 8.7 million Apple iPhone’s, but the Android strategy is starting to pay off.

Their latest handsets have received a favourable welcome, notably the Motorola Droid X in the United States, which saw inventory shortages just hours after its launch (but whose sales will only be countered in the third quarter).



Success with Enterprise mobile solutions
The professional mobile solutions division also grew by 10%, generating 1.9 billion dollars which their digital set top boxes grew 13% to 887 million dollars.

Finally, their telecom equipment manufacturing activities, which will be sold to Nokia Siemens Networks for 1.2 billion dollars, remained stable, at 967 million dollars (-2%). It shouldn’t be forgotten that Motorola is aiming to separate their mobile and set top box divisions into a separate company by the first quarter of 2011.

For the third quarter, the group is anticipating increased earnings of between 10 to 12 cents per share.