US vendor Motorola enjoyed its first year-on-year rise in revenues since 2006 in the third quarter, as higher device shipments boosted profits by almost $100 million (€72 million).
The company raised its sales revenue 6% to $5.8 billion, and its profit from $12 million to $109 million, as its mobile devices unit grew sales 20% to $2 billion.
Handset shipments increased sequentially for the first time in years, and 3.8 million of the total 9.1 million units shipped were higher-margin smartphones.
Despite the growth, amortization and expenses resulted in the division recording an operating loss of $43 million, leaving the bulk of earnings to be generated by Motorola's soon to be sold networking division.
The vendor plans to tip billions into its handset business after closing the sale of the networks business to Nokia Siemens this quarter.