Motorola Mobility expects to be profitable this year

July 29, 2011 | 08:26

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Motorola Mobility, which split from parent company Motorola in January, posted a quarterly net loss on Thursday but said it expects to be profitable for the full year.

The US handset and tablet computer maker reported a net loss of $56 million for the second quarter, compared to a net profit of $80 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue was up 28 per cent over a year ago at $3.3 billion, slightly better than the forecasts of Wall Street analysts. Earnings per share of nine cents were also better than the six cents per share expected by analysts.

Motorola Mobility said it shipped 11 million mobile devices during the quarter, including 4.4 million smartphones and 440,000 Xoom tablets.

The Android-powered Xoom, Motorola's answer to the iPad, has received good reviews but has not managed to match the success of the hot-selling Apple device. Apple sold 9.25 million iPads last quarter.

Motorola Mobility said it expects to ship between 21 million and 23 million mobile devices this year, including between 1.3 million and 1.5 million tablets.

It said revenue from mobile devices rose 41 per cent to $2.4 billion in the quarter, with Latin America and China driving the growth.

Revenue rose two per cent at Motorola Mobility's home division in the quarter to $907 million.

"With a focus on profitable growth and delivering differentiated LTE smartphones and tablets, we expect to achieve profitability in Mobile Devices in the fourth quarter and for the full year," Motorola Mobility chairman and chief executive Sanjay Jha said in a statement.

Motorola Mobility shares were trading 3.93 per cent lower in after-hours electronic trading at $22.01 after losing 3.74 per cent during the day.

The Illinois-based Motorola Mobility split off from parent company Motorola on January 4 to become a separately-traded entity.

AFP

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