"If they can stop the loss in that division, that can be a big swing in earnings," said Carpenter, who has a "hold" rating on the stock and doesn't personally own the shares.
Investors said the company may not be able to wring enough profit out of its two largest units, cell phones and mobile-phone network equipment, given possible pricing pressure from No. 1 phone maker Nokia Oyj and Motorola's failure to win many orders for new network gear.
"There's some concern that handsets may not be quite as strong as people might have hoped," said Walter Casey, analyst at Banc One Investment Advisors, which owned 5.28 million Motorola shares as of September. "Their wireless infrastructure business, I think, is weak."
The company has not "been able to come up with a comprehensive plan of attack here to improve things," Casey said.
Trusco Capital Partners technology analyst Christian Koch said that while the Motorola V.60 clamshell phone he recently bought for US$350 is "the best phone I've ever owned," his firm doesn't own any Motorola shares and won't buy any because "Nokia has a much lower manufacturing cost."
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