Motorola Slumps in China

How can the U.S. company be No. 1 again in the world's biggest cell-phone market? It'll need a sharp Razr follow-up to beat Nokia and Samsung for starters
Sanjay Jha, the new co-chief executive officer of Motorola (MOT), is looking for ways to revive the company's handset division, and China is bound to be one of his most important challenges (BusinessWeek.com, 8/4/08). The country should be easy territory for Motorola: China is the world's largest cell-phone market, with more than 500 million people owning mobile handsets, and it wasn't that long ago that Motorola was the market leader. The company, which spent many years building its operations in the country, was No. 1 in China (BusinessWeek.com, 9/23/03) until 2004.

Even after Motorola fell behind Nokia (NOK) in China, it clung to a respectable No. 2 position in the fast-growing market, and in April 2007, that second spot meant Motorola still had more than a 20% share. But as the company's fortunes suffered worldwide, its China business was no longer a sure thing. Over the past 16 months, Motorola's China sales have "plummeted," says Flora Wu, an analyst in Beijing with BDA China, a market research firm. Today, Nokia is tops in China with 38% of the market. No. 2 is now Samsung Electronics, with 16%. Motorola is a distant third, with just 7.5% market share.

What went wrong? To some extent, Motorola in China faces the same problem that plagues the company everywhere: failing to produce an encore to the tremendously successful Razr, which it introduced back in 2004. And coming out with new and interesting models is especially important in China, where big-city consumers replace their phones frequently and put a priority on models that are cool-looking but reasonably priced. Motorola "just had problems launching new and popular models," says Wu. "The Chinese market is one of the most competitive," she says. If you're an executive at a company that doesn't keep pace with what your rivals are launching, "your market share will decline sharply."

An Olympic Gag Order
It hasn't helped that Motorola's biggest rivals have been so good at tackling the China market. Samsung is a global sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, which means it is the only cell-phone maker allowed to advertise in Beijing during the Games. So, while the Korean company plasters billboards and bus stops with ads for its phones, Motorola can't respond. The U.S. company even had to take down a big sign atop its China headquarters in downtown Beijing. Samsung is also sponsoring the Chinese gold-medal-winning men's and women's gymnastics teams. "When they receive a gold medal, they're wearing the Samsung shirt," boasts spokesman Gyehyun Kwon, a Samsung corporate vice-president. "That way, Chinese people [see] Samsung is really helping the Chinese people."

For its part, Nokia remains comfortably ahead of the pack in the country, with models ranging from high-end handsets for affluent residents of big cities like Beijing and Shanghai to inexpensive entry-level phones suitable for new users in the countryside. "Nokia has really covered every segment of the market," says Dave Carini, an analyst in Beijing with market-research firm Maverick China Research. To develop its China business further, the Finnish company announced last month plans for an additional $150 million in its in-house venture capital fund targeting potential investments in China and India.

Restructuring May Boost Motorola
The news from China hasn't been all bleak for Motorola, however. The Schaumburg (Ill.) company has managed to win some important infrastructure contracts recently. For instance, early this month Motorola announced in the first half of the year it had landed $431 million in contracts to provide China Mobile (CHL), the country's top cellular operator, with second-generation GSM equipment. That's up from $394 million for the same period in 2007.

A government-backed restructuring of the country's state-owned operators might also boost Motorola's business, says Simon Leung, president of Motorola Asia-Pacific. Following the restructuring, there will be three Chinese cellular operators: China Mobile, current No. 2 China Unicom (CHU), and China Telecom (CHA), which until now had been a fixed-line operator without a cellular business. Motorola, says Leung, has good relationships with each operator. "We are the only ones with the technology to address the needs of all three of them," he says. "We are in a very good position."

Stay Tuned for New Models
When it comes to handsets, "we do have a gap" with the market leaders, Leung concedes. "We took our eyes off the ball a little bit. We didn't have the phones in the market at the right time." Still, he points to several new models that the company plans to introduce soon. "Stay tuned," he says.

BDA's Wu agrees that Motorola isn't out of the running completely in the Chinese handset market, since the company has significant R&D resources it can utilize to help it rebuild. But Motorola's rivals aren't standing still, and the company's missteps have hurt its reputation among Chinese consumers. "The brand has suffered," she says. "The problem cannot be sorted out in a short period of time."

Einhorn is BusinessWeek's Asia Regional Editor in Hong. With Chi-Chu Tschang in Beijing

Motorola Shuffles its Handset Unit

18th April 2008

An internal memo distributed within Motorola has announced several changes to the how the company will organise its handsets division. The company has decided to merge two internal divisons which worked separately on its feature and its multimedia handsets into one team.
The software teams for both categories of phones will now work together with their counterparts at the the hardware and design departments. The company said that this would streamline the management reporting chains. The company said that it expects the moves will help speed up its launching of new handsets.
The company also said that Rob Shaddock has been named as the Head of Consumer Products and Bruce Brda was made Head of Worldwide Sales and Operations. Steve Lalla will head up the division focusing on entry level handsets.

Qisda reportedly lands ODM handset orders from Motorola

5 March 2008


Taiwan-based Qisda has received ODM handset orders from a first-tier handset vendor with shipments to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, company president Hsiung Hui was quoted by the Chinese-language Commercial Times as saying at an investors conference. The paper indicated that Qisda most likely secured the ODM orders from Motorola.

The selection of Qisda by Motorola would have been due to Qisda's previous experience in the development of customized handsets for telecom services providers in Europe where Motorola is trying to push up the ratio of handsets sold through telecom operators, the paper noted.

In other news, Qisda posted after-tax profits of NT$4.77 billion (US$154 million), or NT$3.11 per share, in 2007, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE). The company plans to deal out dividends of NT$1 for 2007, including NT$0.10 in cash and NT$0.90 in shares.

China's ZTE in Cooperation Talks with Motorola

17 Feb 2008

China's ZTE is reported to be in talks with Motorola over a wider cooperation - which could presumably spark rumours about a possible merger of the two companies respective handset divisions. Speaking to Reuters, Xiong Hui, a marketing vice president for handsets said that ZTE was looking to deepen its relationship with Motorola.

"We've been keeping in touch with Motorola on a wider cooperation," Hui said through a translator in an interview with Reuters. He did not give specific details about the companies' existing ties or their future plans.

ZTE recently started selling its first handsets in the USA, and has a long term partnership for low-cost phones with Vodafone.

Motorola's handset division has been valued at between US$9-12 billion. Last week, both Samsung and LG denied being interested in taking on Motorola's handset division.

Last week though, Motorola's Chief Executive Greg Brown said at the Mobile Congress World that the company is fully committed to its handset division, so a SonyEricsson style merger with another company might be more likely.

There have also been rumours that Motorola could be in talks with Nortel on a possible merger of their respective network infrastructure divisions. Nortel's current CEO, Mike Zafirovski was Motorola's president and chief operating officer before taking over as head of the Canada-based company in November 2005.

On the web: Reuters

Compal Communications voices concerns over Motorola plans to break up handset unit

4 February 2008
Taiwan-based Compal Communications, a major handset OEM maker for Motorola, is concerned that China-based consortiums may eventually take up the handset unit of Motorola after the US vendor said last week it is considering separating the money-losing unit, according to Rock Hsu, chairman of the Compal Group.
The China-based companies might switch the majority of handset orders from Motorola to OEM makers in China if they do take up Motorola's handset unit, Hsu stated.
However, Hsu reiterated that the order adjustment would take 1-2 years and therefore, the planned sale of Motorola's handset unit will not affect Compal's operations in 2008.
Asked if there is the possibility of Compal acquiring Motorola's handset unit, Hsu said the company currently does not have a base to operate a brand product and instead will continue to expand its pool OEM clients.

Motorola and Metrologic Resolve Patent Disputes

1 Jan 2008

Motorola and Metrologic Instruments have jointly announced that Motorola together with its subsidiary, Symbol Technologies and Metrologic Instruments and its subsidiaries have reached an agreement that settles all outstanding patent infringement disputes between the two companies.
Since 2002, Metrologic and Symbol have been engaged in a number of patent disputes involving technology in the fields of barcode scanning and mobile computing. The agreement announced today ends all pending litigation.
Under the settlement agreement the parties have entered into a patent cross-license for a limited term in the field of barcode scanning and mobile computing. The specific terms of the settlement are confidential.

Motorola to introduce next-generation Linux-based Ming handsets in 2Q08

18 Dec, 2007

Motorola plans to launch its next-generation Linux-based "Ming" handsets in the second quarter of 2008, with the hand input intelligence handsets to be available in both high-end and entry-level versions, according to Bill Chen, general manager of of mobile device business at Motorola Taiwan. Previously, the Ming was released only in a high-end version.

While Motorola's R&D center in Beijing will continue to handle the development of the high-end version of the new Ming handsets, the US vendor will outsource the production of the new entry-level Ming handsets to the Taiwan-based Inventec Group, according to market sources, who also noted that the new Ming handsets will continue to support the 2.5G standard.

Motorola on December 17 launched its high-end 3.5G RAZR V9 in Taiwan, and the company plans to introduce in Taiwan a Symbian-based ROKR Z8, Windows Mobile-based Q9 and three entry-level models, including the W360 and W213, before the end of this year, Chen said.
Handsets supporting the 3G standard will account for 50% of all handsets sold in Taiwan in 2008, Chen projected.

[What is their strategy?...do they have one?...who know?]
Outsource low-end
http://mobilenewsarchive.blogspot.com/2007/12/motorola-to-increase-outsourcing-of.html

Join Google- Andriod
Where's my Gphone?

Member of LiMo Foundation.

Buy UIQ from SE.
EU clears Sony Ericsson/Motorola deal-Sony Ericsson Gets European Approval to Sell Half of UIQ Software to Motorola

Motorola to increase outsourcing of handsets in 2008, says paper

17 Dec, 2007

Motorola is expected to expand its outsourcing policy by increasing the ratio of ODM handsets to its total output to 50% in 2008 compared to 40% in 2007, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.
Under the new outsourcing strategy, Motorola is expected to outsource 75-80 million handsets to ODM makers in the coming year, with more than 50 million units outsourced to Compal Communications and the rest of the handsets outsourced to Chi Mei Communications System (CMCS), the paper said.
Component suppliers, including Toppoly Optoelectronics (display), Wintek and Giantplus Technology (CTSN panels), Career Technology and Ichia Technology (flexible PCBs), Silitek (keypads) and Compeq Manufacturing and United Printed Circuit Board (PCBs), will also benefit from the increased outsourcing, noted the paper.

Chi Mei Communication Systems lands ultra-low cost handset orders from Motorola, says paper

14 Dec, 2007

Chi Mei Communication Systems (CMCS), an affiliate of Hong Kong-based Foxconn International Holdings (FIH), has landed a large-quantity order for ultra-low cost handsets from Motorola, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.
CMCS is expected to begin delivering the ultra-low cost handsets to Motorola in the second quarter of 2008, with total shipments likely to reach 30 million units, said the paper, which also noted that the handsets will initially target the market in India.

They are also doing good with Nokia. They are building capacity to ensure cost advantages. Also, they have windows mobile....

Other news.

1. Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) has taken over the CDMA team of Nokia located in San Diego, USA

2. FIH to build new handset plant in Guangdong

3. Handset start-up Mobinnova lands smartphone orders from i-mate

3G handsets surpass half of US device sales in 3Q07, says Strategy Analytics

21 Nov, 2007

Handsets from Motorola and LG Electronics (LGE), collectively accounted for seven of the top-ten best selling consumer handsets in the US in the third quarter of 2007, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.
"Overall the average retail price paid for these top-ten handsets was 19% higher than the market average and we continue to see strong upgrade dynamics continue to supplement US market growth," stated Barry Gilbert, vice president of Strategy Analytics' ProductSTRAX services. "Motorola, however, despite selling four of the top-ten models in the third quarter, realized an average selling price (ASP) of only US$80, nearly 40% lower than the group average."
"3G devices accounted for 55% of the top selling device volumes. That share will continue to grow during the fourth quarter," states Chris Ambrosio, a director in the Wireless Practice at Strategy Analytics. "While the iPhone gets the headlines, the "Sync" from Samsung and the "Chocolate" from LG quietly stole the show in the category of iconic, 3G feature phones. Samsung, in particular, is well-positioned to dominate 3G sales during the critical fourth quarter holiday season."

US best selling consumer handsets, 3Q07
Model
Motorola RAZR V3
Motorola RAZR V3m
LG VX8300
Apple iPhone
LG Chocolate VX8550/8500
Motorola MOTOKRZR K1m
Samsung SGH-A707
LG VX5300
Sanyo Katana II
Motorola V323i/V325i

China’s smartphone sales continue to rise

20 Nov, 2007 by CommsDay
China saw a 5.2 per cent increase in smartphone sales, reaching sales volume of 6.388 million sets in Q3 and gaining US$2.23 billion sales revenue, increasing 11.3 per cent on a month-on-month basis, said CCID Consulting.
The firm put down the highs in sales volume to students buying phones during the summer vacation and the promotions during the Chinese national holiday.
CCID also reported that Symbian OS retained its lead over other operating systems, holding nearly 70 per cent market share with sales volume reaching 4.416 million handsets, due to Nokia’s ongoing popularity in China.
Windows Mobile posted 52 per cent growth rate attributed in part to the popularity of Windows Mobile-based phones from Motorola, Samsung, Lenovo and Dopod, though still representing just over 5 per cent of the market.
Conversely, although Linux still held more than 25 per cent of the market, sales volume dropped partly due to the declining sales of Motorola’s Linux-based models, which accounted for 70 per cet of the Linux-based smartphone market, the market analyst said.
The market share for Palm operating system phones is down 52.6 per cent. The reason is that the manufacturers adopting the Palm operating system are not the mainstream of the market, CCID reported.
CCID also added that market share of phones with large screens continually increase. However, while smartphones with a screen size larger than two inches make up more than 90 per cent of the market, their share is actually decreasing. Demand for screen sizes larger than 2.4 inches has decreased nearly 13 per cent, which the firm has speculated on account of customers wanting smaller, lighter phones.
Looking forward, CCID Consulting forecasts that China's smart phone market will keep increasing in 2007Q4 and the sales volume will increase five per cent while the sales revenue will increase eight per cent.
Promotional campaigns are also expected to be the key to a manufacturer’s success in the smart phone market in 2007Q3.

Taiwan market: Motorola to launch 20-30 handsets in 2008 to restore leading market position

20 Nov, 2007

Motorola plans to launch 20-30 new handsets in Taiwan in 2008 with an aim to re-capture the lead position in the Taiwan handset market, according to Bill Chen, newly appointed general manager of mobile device business at Motorola Taiwan.
In the coming year, Motorola will also stress strengthening its relations with channel partners in Taiwan and to pursue a balance between sales volume and profitability while gearing up efforts to boost performance, Chen stated.
Motorola currently was ranked as the fourth largest vendor in the Taiwan handset market accounting for a 13.6% share, compared to Nokia's 32%, Sony Ericsson's 20.6% and Samsung Electronics' 14-15%, according a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report as well as sources at Samsung.
Motorola on November 19 launched it RAZR 2 V8 Luxury Edition handset and other 2GB V8 models in Taiwan targeting the high-end segment, with the company planning to introduce its 3G-version V9, ROKR Z8 music handset and 3.5G Q9 smartphone in the local market before the end of this year, according to company sources.
Motorola has ventured into the development of Android-based handsets, but the company still has no timetable for the launch the open-platform mobile devices, Chen stated.

Motorola opens R&D center in Beijing

9 Nov, 2007

Motorola recently announced the inauguration of its R&D complex in Beijing, China.
Motorola's 92,000-square meter complex in the Wangjing area of Beijing consists of one 16-floor office tower, three low-rise R&D buildings (three stories each) and one lab building and will accommodate more than 3,000 Motorola employees, including 2,000 R&D engineers.
Motorola has a number of R&D teams based in China, including its Mobile Device China Design Center, Motorola Global Software Group China Center and the Motorola Home and Networks Mobility China GSM/UMTS R&D Team. These three R&D institutes will move into the newly constructed complex in Wangjing.
Other major labs and R&D centers that have settled down in the new location include the Motorola Beijing Compliance Lab; Global Telecom Solutions Sector (GTSS) China Design Center; Customer Network Resolution Center (CNRC); Motorola Engineering Institute (MEI); and Antenna and EMI labs.
Early in 1993, Motorola took the initiative to establish its first R&D facility in China – The Global Software Group China, which was also the first of its kind built by multinationals in China. Up to now, Motorola has invested US$800 million in R&D, building R&D centers and labs in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu and Hangzhou and employs more than 3,000 R&D staff, according to the company.

Where's my Gphone?

11/05/2007 08:09:00 AM Posted by Andy Rubin, Director of Mobile Platforms

Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we're not announcing a Gphone. However, we think what we are announcing -- the Open Handset Alliance and Android -- is more significant and ambitious than a single phone. In fact, through the joint efforts of the members of the Open Handset Alliance, we hope Android will be the foundation for many new phones and will create an entirely new mobile experience for users, with new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today.

Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications -- all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation. We have developed Android in cooperation with the Open Handset Alliance, which consists of more than 30 technology and mobile leaders including Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC and T-Mobile. Through deep partnerships with carriers, device manufacturers, developers, and others, we hope to enable an open ecosystem for the mobile world by creating a standard, open mobile software platform. We think the result will ultimately be a better and faster pace for innovation that will give mobile customers unforeseen applications and capabilities.

We see Android as an important part of our strategy of furthering Google's goal of providing access to information to users wherever they are. We recognize that many among the multitude of mobile users around the world do not and may never have an Android-based phone. Our goals must be independent of device or even platform. For this reason, Android will complement, but not replace, our longstanding mobile strategy of developing useful and compelling mobile services and driving adoption of these products through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world.

It's important to recognize that the Open Handset Alliance and Android have the potential to be major changes from the status quo -- one which will take patience and much investment by the various players before you'll see the first benefits. But we feel the potential gains for mobile customers around the world are worth the effort. If you’re a developer and this approach sounds exciting, give us a week or so and we’ll have an SDK available. If you’re a mobile user, you’ll have to wait a little longer, but some of our partners are targeting the second half of 2008 to ship phones based on the Android platform. And if you already have a phone you know and love, check out mobile.google.com and make sure you have Google Maps for mobile, Gmail and our other great applications on your phone. We'll continue to make these services better and add plenty of exciting new features, applications and services, too.

What would your phone do?

Motorola Q3 profits decline but shares rise

26 Oct 2007
Third-quarter profits of the world’s third-largest handset manufacturer plunged 94 per cent, adding pressure on Motorola’s chairman and chief executive, Ed Zander whose leadership is already in question.

Zander has been criticised by billionaire and 3 per cent owner Carl Icahn after Motorola issued two profit warnings in just five months. The US mobile giant reported sales of US$8.8 billion for the third quarter of 2007, down 17 per cent from $10.6 billion last year.

The company had a third-quarter profit of $60 million, or 3 cents per share, compared to last year’s $968 million profit, or 39 cents per share."We are pleased with the improvement in the financial performance of mobile devices and we look forward to building upon the progress we have made," said the chief executive officer.The US phone maker shipped 37.2 million mobile handsets during the quarter, well above analyst expectations. This included more than 900,000 RAZR 2 devices, the thinner successor to the original and best-selling RAZR phone."During the third quarter, we maintained our focus on increasing cash flow, enhancing profitability and driving growth," said Tom Meredith, chief financial officer.

Sales in the Mobile Devices segment slumped 36 per cent, to $4.5 billion compared with the year-ago quarter. The firm currently estimates its share of the global handset market for the quarter to be 13 per cent, two percentage points behind Samsung, which recently beat them to the number two global mobile phone maker position.Shares of the company rose 4 per cent, or 75 cents, to close at $19.30

Compal Communications may see handset shipments improve in 4Q

26 Oct, 2007

Compal Communications, the largest handset contract maker for Motorola in Taiwan, is expected to see its handset shipments improve in the fourth quarter after Motorola reported better-than-expected performance for the third quarter, according to sources at Taiwan handset makers.
The seven W-series handsets, the W156, W160, W175, W180, W206, W213, W377, which Motorola launched recently, are all manufactured by Compal Communications, the sources indicated.
Based on the component orders that Compal has placed with suppliers, Compal is expected to ship a total of 10-12 million handsets in the fourth quarter, including 6-7 million W-series models and 4-5 million C-series models, estimated the sources.
Compal shipped 11.6 million handsets in the third quarter of 2007, brining its handset shipments for the first three quarters to 36.9 million units, or 73.8% of its revised target of 50 million units for 2007, according to company data.

Top 5 Mobile Phone Manufacturers Consolidate Their Market Share Lead

25 Oct, 2007
How much did Nokia increase its mobile-phone unit shipments in the third quarter? More than the total second-quarter mobile-handset shipments of Fujitsu, Ningbo Bird, TCL-Alcatel, Panasonic, Pantech & Curitel, and UTStarcom - combined.


Indeed, Nokia's third-quarter gains were impressive, with its global mobile-handset shipments rising by a stunning 10.9 million units compared to the second quarter. The Finnish mobile-handset sales leader increased its shipments to 111.7 million units in the third quarter, up 10.8 percent from 100.8 million in the second quarter. This gave the company a global market share of 39.5 percent, up from 37.9 percent in the second quarter, helping it to pad its market dominance.

"Nokia is capitalizing on the increasing popularity of multimedia- and business-oriented applications for mobile phones," said Tina Teng, analyst, wireless communications, for iSuppli. "The company's shipments of 'convergence' mobile phones that integrate multimedia and smart-phone features grew by 53.8 percent in the third quarter of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006."

Nokia also remained the leader in terms of operating profit in the third quarter. The company's mobile device business unit achieved an exceptionally-healthy 22.2 percent operating margin during the period. This compares to an average operating margin of 10.5 percent for the Top-5 mobile-handset suppliers in the third quarter.
The only disappointment in Nokia's third-quarter results was its performance in the Americas region. Nokia in the third quarter suffered a unit-shipment decline of 12.7 percent in Latin America and of 1.7 percent in North America compared to the same period in 2006.


A Q3 to remember
The strong results from Nokia came during a robust period for the global mobile-handset business and its leading players. Worldwide mobile phone shipments during the period amounted to 283 million units, up 6.4 percent from 266 million units in the second quarter and a 15.4 percent increase from 245.3 million units in the third quarter of 2006.
High first-time sales of phones in emerging markets and high replacement rates in Europe were the major factor driving the growth.
The Top-5 mobile handset suppliers benefited from the healthy growth, with all of these companies increasing their shipments during the third quarter compared to the second.
Combined shipments for these companies rose 9.6 percent during the third quarter compared to the second. At this margin of expansion, these companies outgrew the overall market and thus gained aggregate market share at the expense of the smaller suppliers.



Samsung soars again
While Nokia's unit shipment gain was impressive, Samsung Electronics actually posted a slightly larger increase on a percentage basis, helping the company to maintain the second rank in the industry.
Samsung's global mobile-handset shipments rose to 42.6 million units in the third quarter, up 13.9 percent from 37.4 million in the second quarter. Compared to the third quarter of 2006, Samsung's shipments rose by 38.8 percent, the highest rate of all the Top-5 mobile-handset makers.
This boosted Samsung's market share to 15.1 percent, up from 14.1 percent in the second quarter, giving the company a 2.2 percentage point lead over No. 3 ranked Motorola. This is up from a 0.7-point gap in the second quarter.
"Samsung's strong performance was due to impressive increases in shipments in the European and Americas regions," Teng said. "The company's shipments in Europe and the Americas rose by 28.1 percent and 26.6 percent respectively in the third quarter. This more than offset the 6 percent sequential decline in shipments in Asia during the same period."
Samsung has chosen not to participate in the Ultra Low Cost Handset (ULCH) market and instead has put increased focus on high-end, high-margin 3G handsets. This strategy paid off, with the company boosting its average operating margin by $1 during the period.
The company in the third quarter yielded a 12.3 percent operating profit margin, up from 8.4 percent in the second quarter.
Motorola on the comeback trail?
Based on iSuppli's preliminary estimate of Motorola's share, the company shipped 36.5 million mobile handsets during the third quarter, up 2.8 percent from 35.5 million in the second quarter. This lagged the handset market's overall shipment growth rate of 6.4 percent, but kept Motorola's market share fairly steady at around 13 percent. However, on a year-to-year basis, Motorola's shipments plunged by 32.7 percent, making it the only company not to post an increase on an annual basis in the third quarter.
Motorola in the second quarter lost its long-time No. 2 ranking to Samsung. The company struggled to achieve an operating profit in the first and second quarters.
"Despite Motorola's recent woes, there are signs the company is gradually regaining its footing in the global mobile handset market," Teng said. "With its new product line coming out during the holiday season, Motorola should be able to achieve continued growth in shipment volume during the fourth quarter."

Final figures on Motorola's shipments will be available after it issues its third-quarter results later this week.

LG lives large
LG was the clear leader in terms of volume-shipment percentage growth in the third quarter, with its sales rising by 14.7 percent sequentially. The company's global mobile-phone shipments increased to 21.9 million during the third quarter, up from 19.1 million in the second quarter.
However, all the growth was driven by emerging markets such as the Middle East, Latin America, India and China, as was reflected in its Average Selling Price (ASP). Slow sales in North America and Europe resulted in LG's mobile-handset ASP falling to $124, down 18.6 percent from $152.3 in the second quarter.
Despite a revenue decline of 7.9 percent measured in South Korean won, LG still managed to maintain its operating profit at 8.4 percent in the third quarter.

Nokia, Motorola and Qisda plan to launch WiMAX devices and handsets in 2008

23 Oct, 2007

Nokia and Motorola as well as Taiwan-based Qisda (formerly BenQ) all plan to launch WiMAX CPE (customer premise equipment) products in 2008, according to sources in Taiwan's WiMAX industry

Motorola is expected to take the lead to introduce a CDMA/WiMAX dual-mode handset in the first half of 2008, while Nokia, is expected to launch during the same period an Internet tablet device supporting WiMAX technology, the sources indicated.
Motorola's product research center in Taiwan will extend its coverage to include WiMAX technology and the center will offer IOT (interoperability testing) services to its production partners as well as other WiMAX CPE makers in Taiwan, said Simon Liang, president of Asia Pacific at Motorola.
Qisda is expected to launch its EDGE/WiMAX dual-mode phone before the end of 2008 that will be a modified version of the BenQ E72 smartphone, according to sources at the company.
The company is currently developing a WiMAX module utilizing baseband chips from Runcom and RF chips from NXP Semiconductors, the sources noted.
With the exception of WiMAX-enabled handsets, Qisda has no plans to develop other WiWAX CPE products, the sources stated.

Broadcom Joins the LiMo Foundation

18 Sept, 2007

[Broadcom joins LiMo Foundation as semiconductor supplier. LiMo Foundation members collaborate to create a unified Linux-based OS for mobile devices.]

Irvine, CA -- Broadcom Corporation, a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that it has joined the LiMo Foundation as one of its first semiconductor suppliers. Broadcom joins a prestigious group of founding members (Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone) that have collaborated to create a unified Linux-based operating system for mobile devices. As part of the group's charter the LiMo Foundation is delivering a globally consistent software platform and unified applications programming interface (API) to enable open source contributions that will help to drive smartphone capabilities and developments.
As Broadcom 3G solutions continue to evolve towards more powerful and increasingly connected devices, next generation handsets will require a software platform that can keep pace with this increasing level of sophistication. Today's smartphone is expected to enable, enrich and entertain consumers with dynamic user interfaces and increased security. As the Linux operating system continues to gain momentum in the mobile space, Broadcom will work with the LiMo Foundation to address industry concerns such as power, size and cost, in an effort to achieve widespread adoption of Linux-based handsets.
"Broadcom's membership in the LiMo Foundation highlights the growing enthusiasm for mobile Linux and the effort to build products within a shared architecture," said Morgan Gilis, Executive Director of the LiMo Foundation. "The power of the LiMo Foundation increases with each new committed contributor and the addition of Broadcom to this alliance will make the technology increasingly attractive for new handset products."
As an associate member of the LiMo Foundation, Broadcom will gain access to the Foundation's code, participate in working groups and make contributions that will enable Broadcom to further assert its leadership in the developing smartphone segment, while continuing to maintain technological leadership in the mobile Linux arena.
"Adding the expertise and commitment of a leading chip supplier such as Broadcom to the LiMo Foundation makes the organization stronger and ultimately more successful in commercializing innovative LiMo solutions," said Kiyohito Nagata of NTT DoCoMo, Chairperson of the LiMo Foundation. "We're excited to have Broadcom as a member and we expect the company to make strong contributions to our technology and market initiatives."
"Broadcom is an exciting addition to the LiMo Foundation," said Hankil Yoon, the chair of Architecture Council of LiMo and Vice President of Samsung Electronics. "Broadcom's diverse connectivity portfolio will drive increasingly advanced devices into Linux handsets."
Broadcom's move to join the LiMo Foundation follows the recent expansion of its smart-phone Design Center in Taiwan, which currently focuses on the development of Windows Mobile solutions, and joining the S60 developers' community for Symbian S60 based smart-phones. These three recent moves highlight Broadcom's strong commitment to and investment in all popular types of smartphone. It is this commitment and investment, combined with world-leading silicon solutions that enable Broadcom to target the majority of the feature-rich mobile phone market.
"Broadcom has a long history of working closely within the Linux community on advanced communications products. Our membership in the LiMo Foundation highlights our commitment to the expanding opportunities within the Linux mobile environment," said Jim Tran, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Mobile Communications line of business. "Support for advanced operating systems, such as Linux, is a key feature of our advanced baseband products and we're excited to support LiMo Foundation devices for both the smart- and feature-phone markets."
Key Broadcom Linux-compliant Mobile Solutions
Broadcom expects its initial Linux-compliant mobile solutions to include the BCM2153 and BCM2820.
The BCM2153 HEDGE (HSDPA + EDGE) multimedia baseband processor is the industry's first solution for mobile handsets that integrates a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) baseband modem with world-class application, audio and multimedia processors on a single monolithic chip. The new Linux-compliant mixed-signal device is the first developed completely in a 65 nanometer CMOS process and integrates an advanced HSDPA modem that delivers 7.2 Mbps (megabits per second) for applications requiring high speed 3G connectivity. With this level of integration, the BCM2153 HSDPA processor requires less board space, cost and power than competing solutions, thus eliminating the cost premium associated with HSDPA handsets today.
The BCM2820 applications processor is a high performance system-on-a-chip solution that combines Broadcom's industry-leading VideoCore's multimedia processor and an ARM11(TM) applications processor. Fully supporting Linux, the BCM2820 is optimized for high volume markets including mobile phones, mobile TVs and portable audio/video/game devices, while delivering unprecedented levels of integration, multimedia performance and low power dissipation. The BCM2820 applications processor offers an impressive array of multimedia features including support for an 8 megapixel digital camera, MPEG-4/H.264 VGA video decoding at 30 frames per second, video encoding at 30 frames per second, and NTSC/PAL TV output via composite, component and S-video connections.
Both the BCM2820 and BCM2153 are currently available to Broadcom's strategic partners. Broadcom also makes available complete development platforms, pre-integrated with associated software and peripheral devices, such as PMU, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM Radio, and GPS.