Motorola said that its newly re-envisioned Razr led its increases in total phone shipments and revenue in the fourth quarter. But considering Moto’s vastly reduced market share, those increases didn’t lead to much.
Motorola shipped only 5.3 million smartphones and 200,000 tablets in the fourth quarter. In comparison, Apple shipped 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in the same period.
Total device shipments were 10.5 million for the quarter while for the year the total was 42.5 million, including 18.7 million smartphones and 1 million tablets. Like other Android smartphone makers not named Samsung, Motorola continues to feel the pressure of a very crowded and competitive market.
As Om wrote earlier this month, the market is fracturing between two smartphone giants, Apple and Samsung, making it harder for any vendor without a distinguishing operating system to catch up. Nokia is hoping it can become just that challenger by embracing the upstart Windows Phone OS. Its Lumina Windows device sales were about 1 million for the fourth quarter, but the company has only begun to ramp its new smartphone line.
Despite a 5 percent boost in device revenues, Motorola posted a loss of $ 80 million, which the vendor attributed to reorganization and write-off costs in advance of its acquisition by Google. Whether Google plans to use its considerably resources to revive the ailing vendor or if it plans to simply reap its patent portfolio is still an open question. Regardless Motorola said it expects the $ 12.5 million deal to close early this year.
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