Motorola announced a 45 percent drop in Q3 profits yesterday, with $968 million in earnings, down from $1.75 billion a year ago. The company's earnings met analyst expectations but revenue came in a bit low: Revenue for the quarter was $10.6 billion, up from $9 billion a year ago, but well under analysts' forecasts of $11 billion. CEO Ed Zander said the company missed the expectations because of lower sales of certain handsets as customers awaited its newest phones like the KRZR, which are to be shipped in the fourth quarter.
UBS said in an analyst note that the less than stellar quarter resulted from two main factors: Product transition at Sprint Nextel impacted iDEN sales ahead of a new Moto dual-mode (iDEN/CDMA) handset and in Europe, Motorola was impacted by a UMTS portfolio gap. UBS expects the company to rebound next quarter once these issues clear up and adds that, while management was disappointed with infrastructure revenues, they "were largely in line" with its expectations.
For more on Motorola's Q3 results:
- see this article from The New York Times