Motorola posts $80M quarterly loss, sells only 200K tablets
Motorola Mobility's fiscal year ended on a sour note with poor tablet and smartphone sales leading to a Q4 2011 loss of $80 million, which was further exacerbated by merger costs associated with a planned Google takeover.
In posting its fourth quarter and full-year results for 2011 on Thursday, the RAZR smartphone maker reported that despite a slight increase in yearly revenue, low device sales and high operating costs ultimately led to a decline in earnings from the year ago quarter.
Year-to-year revenue increased to $3.4 billion in 2011, however the fourth quarter saw a precipitous decline in earnings compared to 2010, with a net loss of $80 million compared to $80 million in gains in the quarter one year prior. The disappointing report can be blamed on costs associated with Motorola's merger with Google, but relatively stagnant device sales during the usually lucrative holiday season are also telling.
Most notably, the company sold 200,000 Xoom and Xyboard tablets in the last quarter, which brought the yearly total to one million. In comparison, Apple sold over 15 million iPads in the last quarter alone as it continues its stranglehold on the global tablet market.
Motorola Xyboard 4G tablet | Source: Motorola
Also contributing to the poor quarterly showing was the company's mobile devices unit which posted a $70 million net operating loss. The division's smartphone sales fared a bit better than the tablets numbers, with the 5.3 million units moved in quarter four accounting for almost 30 percent of the 18.7 million total for the year. Combined with feature phone sales, Motorola was able to sell 42.4 million in 2011.
Google is planning to take over Motorola in a proposed $12.5 billion deal that would give the internet monolith access to a treasure trove of telecom patents to help bolster its Android mobile OS.
Comments
I'm surprised that they weren't even more in the hole.
Ha-ha
Who sold the other 10 million Android tablets this quarter?
So Moto barely sells any tablets and the IPad has 58% share? Does anyone believe amazon and Samsung have 42%.
I truly believe they have SHIPPED enough tablets to force the iPad down to 58% share.
I believe that the iPad has about 80% share in terms of tablets outside of their retail boxes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBUoLYOWR8I
So Moto barely sells any tablets and the IPad has 58% share? Does anyone believe amazon and Samsung have 42%.
Apple is announcing numbers from their earnings calls while the other numbers are done by estimating what's been pushed to channels than adding them together. Not quite fair but since few are reporting hard numbers there isn't much else they can do. I'm sure we'll get a revised value soon enough and as always it's the non-Apple numbers that will change racially.
So Moto barely sells any tablets and the IPad has 58% share? Does anyone believe amazon and Samsung have 42%.
What difference does it make what the market share is? All the Android tablet vendors combined including Amazon are making so little money from tablets it doesn't matter if the market share were reversed. Apple is making the major profits of market share from both smartphones and tablets. Android and vendor parters combined are making almost nothing. Why the media makes a big deal about Android tablets eating into iPad share, I really don't understand. No one actually knows how many Kindle Fires were sold outside of Jeff Bezos and he never tells solid numbers.
Apple is announcing numbers from their earnings calls while the other numbers are done by estimating what's been pushed to channels than adding them together. Not quite fair but since few are reporting hard numbers there isn't much else they can do. I'm sure we'll get a revised value soon enough and as always it's the non-Apple numbers that will change racially.
It seems that Apple can't win the market share game. Apple could announce sales of 25 million iPads and the competition, with the help of a little fairy dust, would announce that their sales reduce Apple's share to 30%... no numbers, nothing, just a statement saying that Apple is now at 30%.
I truly believe they have SHIPPED enough tablets to force the iPad down to 58% share.
I believe that the iPad has about 80% share in terms of tablets outside of their retail boxes.
Walk into any Staples, Office Depot, Costco, or Best Buy and you'll find plenty of non-Apple tablets quietly collecting dust.
Yea, and good luck finding a display unit that is fully functional. Once again, Apple's retail experience wins again.
But, but... all the whining Fandroids have been preaching to us all this time that Android will bury iOS! Could it be possible that there is more to reality than just what's in their basements?
@ island hermit,
See, you have to make your comments about basements so general that the mods can't ding you for an ad hominem personal attack.
It seems that Apple can't win the market share game. Apple could announce sales of 25 million iPads and the competition, with the help of a little fairy dust, would announce that their sales reduce Apple's share to 30%... no numbers, nothing, just a statement saying that Apple is now at 30%.
That's the essence of the "market share" game.
It's a comparison of a bunch of different companies' products... calculated by a 3rd party. A ranking... if you will.
They sit back and rank everything... who comes in first, second, and so on... but do you think Apple really cares about stuff like that?
Apple just sold 37 million iPhones... yet the multi-manufacturer "Android Consortium" sold more. Gee, I wonder why?
But hey... at least Apple didn't post a LOSS this quarter
But, but... all the whining Fandroids have been preaching to us all this time that Android will bury iOS! Could it be possible that there is more to reality than just what's in their basements?
It's not their basements. It's their moms' basements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgOX9mb7V4o
Haaaahahahahahaha. I love good news
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgOX9mb7V4o
That was well worth a few million.
WOT...
I was saving this for a RIMM thread...
But, event's have overtaken me...
Better late than never: A tribute to co-CEOdom
dingleberry
So Moto barely sells any tablets and the IPad has 58% share? Does anyone believe amazon and Samsung have 42%.
It's thought that the large majority of those tablets are cheap Chinese models selling in third world countries for $100 or so. We've seen a few on our shores over the past year and a half, and they're junk. But where income is very low, people buy them. The rest are Amazon Fires', which are thought to have had several million bought over the quarter.