Motorola Q1 Earning Call
Today Motorola held their Q1 earnings call and spoke directly about the delays to the Droid Bionic its improved features and gave details about the Xoom’s 4G LTE upgrade. Also discussed were actual number of Xooms thats have shipped and their plans for the summer. It’s some pretty interesting news so lets get into it.
The New Droid Bionic
The question was asked to Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha if the delay of the Bionic has an effect on the lineup that was originally planned for the later half of the year?
Jha: As we saw that that product (original Bionic) was pushing out a little bit, we worked with our partners at Verizon Wireless and re-featured the device and we believe that the result of it, we will have a much better device. We had another device which was a potentially…which had different features than…and we brought in some of the features to deliver what we consider to be a higher feature device that will launch as we go forward into the summer.
When asked if he could reveal something about what those features would be he gave the expected response saying we have to wait, but that they will be great.
Jha: My anticipation is that it will be an important device for us.
LTE To Blame For Delay: To Arrive Simultaneously With The New Bionic And Xoom Upgrade This Summer
Another question was posed on what called for the need of additional features, and if Motorola or Verizon made that decision? Also as it relates to LTE is it still coming to the Xoom in the given summer time frame and will the LTE support correspond with the availability of the Bionic?
Jha: They are related and it is to do with the timing of 4G for us. That is the issue that delayed us. We are engaged with all of the providers in the industry and we feel very comfortable with the fast forward here. We believe that we will launch both devices with 4G capabilities in the summer here.
Bionic Issues Are They Hardware Or Software Related?
The next question is one that is on all of our minds. Was the delay based on a hardware problem, a software problem, or did the new devices from other manufacturers cause you to rethink and improve the Bionic before launch?
Jha: It was really a software issue of getting the performance to a place that both ourselves and our partner Verizon Wireless were comfortable launching the device. And as you understand there is a great deal of complexity in launching any new technology like this and that was probably the main matter at heart here.
What Are The Real Xoom Sales Figures?
Motorola reported that they shipped 250,00 units of the Xoom tablet, the question was asked how many of the shipped units have sold and what are the inventory levels at retail locations?
Motorola: We shipped over 250,000 in the quarter – with respect to the sellout, the sellout was good. We had shipped that product late in February, we only had about 5-6 weeks of sell through opportunity there, but we’re pleased with levels of stock and channel at the end of the quarter as well as what we’ve seen through this earnings call.
The Real Deal About Whats Coming This Summer
The information provided from Motorola’s Q1 earnings call gave some insight into the new Droid Bionic and the Xoom LTE upgrade. Motorola has been working with Verizon to provide the best quality 4G LTE support when they release their LTE devices. The main issue is apparently battery life at the moment with the HTC Thunderbolt and word is not yet in on how the Samsung Droid Charge will be in that department. As the Charge was pulled from is announced release of 4/28 indicating that the LTE issues run deep and are not Motorola specific.
No details were given about the new form factor or which features they pulled from a future device to deliver what they are calling an exceptional experience. We know there are going to be major software tweaks and are hoping substantial hardware improvements as well. Whats your take on the news Motorola presented during the Q1 earnings call?
Via Droid-Life