Motorola says its earnings tripled in the third quarter

Motorola Inc said its third-quarter earnings more than tripled on record sales. The world's No. 2 maker of mobile phones said it continued to pick up market share in the global cellphone market.

All four of its business units showed profitable growth during the quarter, not counting reorganization costs, and the cellphone division turned in a whopping 41 percent increase in sales behind the Razr and other phones.

Motorola said net earnings for the July-through-September period were US$1.75 billion, or US$0.69 per share, compared with US$479 million, or US$0.18 per share, a year earlier not counting the semiconductor unit which it has since spun off.

Revenue climbed 26 percent to a record US$9.42 billion from US$7.5 billion in the third quarter of last year, also excluding the results of its divested unit Freescale Semiconductor Inc.

Increase share

Motorola said it increased its cell-phone market share to 19 percent -- up 5.5 percent from a year earlier and about 1 percent from the second quarter of this year.

The company shipped 38.7 million handsets during the quarter, up 66 percent from a year earlier and a reflection of the slew of new phones it continues to develop.

The high-margin, ultra-thin Razr clamshell phone continued to set the pace with more than 6.5 million units sold in the quarter, and the company also started shipping two new phones from the Razr "family" after the quarter ended in hopes of building on that momentum.

"We continue to profitably grow market share," CEO Ed Zander said on a conference call. "Our quality of earnings continue to improve quarter over quarter and year over year," he added, referring to a recovery that began two years ago after years of sluggish results.

Motorola remains a distant runner-up to Finland's Nokia, which commands more than 30 percent of the world cell-phone market.

Analyst Mike Walkley of Piper Jaffray & Co. said a survey of store owners found disappointing early sales of another new Motorola product -- the Rokr, which was released last month and comes loaded with iTunes software in a partnership with Apple Computer Inc. Nonetheless, he said, an overall strong portfolio of products and the solid third-quarter results suggest the company can continue its move upward.

Getting stronger

"A couple years ago people thought the Chinese and Asian players were going to take over, and really the opposite has happened -- it's really the two big guys [Motorola and Nokia] that have continued to get stronger," he said. "Based on their product portfolio, I expect the trend to continue into next year for Motorola."

Nokia is expected to post strong earnings and confirm its position as the top handset maker in emerging markets when it presents its third quarter report today, analysts said.

The company's earnings per share figure for the three months to September was seen coming in 35 percent higher than a year ago, at US$0.23.

Pretax profit is forecast to hit US$1.40 billion, according to analysts polled by AFP's financial newswire, AFX News.

"Nokia registered good results on emerging markets like China and India but in the United States it is considered a low-end brand," analyst Petri Arjama of Handelsbanken bank said.

He said that he believed the Finnish company would report a market share of at least 40 percent in developing countries, but less than 25 percent in developed markets in western Europe and North America.

On Monday, Swedish-Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson posted a stronger-than-expected third-quarter net profit of US$124 million.