News

Motorola smartphone shipments up, but losses hit $86 million in Q1 2012

5.1 million units shipped

Motorola smartphone shipments up, but losses hit $86 million in Q1 2012
With Google's planned acquisition still yet to be signed off, Motorola Mobility's Q1 2012 results paint a picture of a company still in transition.

Smartphone shipments were up across the quarter, hitting 5.1 million units in total. That's up from 4.1 million units during the same period in 2011, though mobile shipments as a whole fell by more than 4 percent to 8.9 million units.

Higher smartphone retail prices nonetheless saw revenues rise by 2 percent to $3.1 billion across the quarter.

 

Mobile devices alone accounted for $2.2 billion of that – up from $2.1 billion in Q1 2011- though neither success could prevent the company from posting an overall loss.

Going down

Using GAAP figures, Motorola Mobility recorded a loss of $86 million across the quarter, up from $81 billion during the same period in 2011.

Non-GAAP figures – which some believe delivers a more accurate record of a company's performance, disregarding some of the accounting principles enforced by GAAP – suggested the company is fairing a little better, with the loss coming in at $10 million.

That's significantly better than the $61 million non-GAAP loss recorded in Q1 2011.

"The introduction of RAZR MAXX marked another successful addition to the Motorola product family and contributed to our growth in smartphones," said chairman and CEO Sanjay Jha of the quarter.

"Our home business delivered another solid quarter highlighted by improvement in year-over-year profitability. We continue to work closely with Google to complete the proposed merger during the first half of the year."

[source: Motorola Mobility]

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.