Remember when Motorola’s clamshell mobile camera phone Razr was all the rage? Well, that’s the last time the company posted year-over-year quarterly sales growth. That is, until now.
Motorola posted a third-quarter sales jump, its first since 2006, and reported an operating profit for the first time in three years. Revenue rose 6 percent to $5.8 billion in the July to September period. What’s more, the company reported net income of $109 million, or 5 cents per share. That's up from $12 million, or 1 cent per share, a year ago.
Driving such growth are strong mobile device sales of $2 billion. Motorola shipped 9.1 million handsets, including 3.8 million smartphones. Enterprise mobility solutions sales hit the $1.9 billion mark, and home sales reached $912 million.
“In the third quarter, Motorola Mobility showed positive momentum across the business, with Mobile Devices reaching profitability for the first time in over three years and Home continues to maintain its leadership position,” said Sanjay Jha, Motorola co-chief executive officer and Motorola Mobility CEO. “Mobile Devices’ DROIDX continues to sell extremely well, and we have had several other successful smartphone launches globally, including the DROID 2, the MING series in China, as well as a well-received introduction of our enterprise-ready DROID PRO.”
It’s been a busy month for Motorola. In mid-October, the company entered into a 4G license agreement with Nokia Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, Motorola and Nokia have extended the companies' existing intellectual property licensing agreement to include 4G cellular technologies, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access and LTE-Advanced.
Also this month, Motorola launched a patent dispute, accusing Apple of infringing on patents pertaining to its wireless and mobile devices. The company filed its complaints with the International Trade Commission as well as in the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida. The legal dispute surrounds Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iTouch and other Mac computers which Motorola alleges infringe on 18 of its patents in the areas of antenna design and related smartphone technologies.
Edited by
Tammy Wolf