In a sign that it may be finally turning its fortunes around, Motorola Inc surprised investors on Thursday by reporting a small profit for the second quarter and revealing it had shipped more cellphones than in the first quarter.
The profit was the result of a sales increase across all units from the first quarter, helped by cost cuts. It has laid off more than 10,000 workers since last year.
The Schaumburg, Illinois-based company earned US$4 million, less than US$0.01 per share, in the three months ended on June 30. That includes accounting charges of US$0.02 per share.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had been expecting a loss of US$0.03 per share.
In the same quarter a year ago, Motorola lost US$28 million, or US$0.02 per share.
Its sales fell 7.4 percent to US$8.1 billion, but that exceeded the US$7.7 billion that analysts were predicting.
The company shipped 28.1 million cellphones, up from 27 million in the first quarter, and said it maintained its share of the global handset market.
Research firm IDC said that Motorola’s market share actually slipped slightly from 9.4 percent of the global market in the first quarter to 9.2 percent in the second, but the company narrowly maintained its third-place ranking, just above South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, with 9.1 percent. Nokia Corp is the largest maker of cellphones, followed by Samsung Electronics Co.
Chief executive Greg Brown said Motorola expected to sell slightly fewer cellphones in the current quarter, then see sales rise again in the fourth quarter. The company is putting out 50 new phone models this year, compared with about 40 last year. It is also aiming to strengthen its presence in the “smart” phone market, which has grown strongly in the last year, with more phones that have touch screens or full-alphabet keyboards.
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