Motorola Mobility continues to lose money and relevancy in 2012. In Q1 2011, Motorola Mobility posted a loss of $62 million. A year later, their Q1 2012 earnings are even worse, falling to a staggering $86 million loss. Motorola is best known for their Droid series of Android phones. Launched in November 2009 on Verizon Wireless, the Motorola Droid proved to be a complete success selling 1.05 million units in the first 74 days after launch.This number is greater than that of the original iPhone which sold one million units during its’ first 74 days.
Since then, Motorola Mobility has launched numerous phones on multiple carriers trying to stay relevant in a crowded market. Currently, Motorola Mobility seems to be set on improving their flagship devices, the RAZR series. The original RAZR was released in November 2011, since then we’ve seen the RAZR MAXX, and now rumors of an upcoming RAZR MAXX HD. This has current RAZR and RAZR MAXX owners outraged that within roughly 6 months, three iterations of the same phone would be released. Sure each one is better than the next, but consumers want a great device the first time around. Don’t forget about #OPMOSH either, the locked bootloader saga that has the entire Android modding community in an uproar.
Motorola Mobility needs to have something up their sleeve for CTIA later this week or they’re going to be in trouble during Q2 as well. Nothing revolutionary or game changing was announced from Motorola Mobility at CES his year. Sure, the worlds best LTE phone, in terms of battery life was announced, the RAZR MAXX, but that was only one device which was just a previous device with a new battery. Then, we move onto MWC 2012, once again, nothing from Motorola Mobility announced that would change their earnings throughout the oncoming year.
Motorola Mobility is still waiting on final approval to be acquired by Google. The acquisition has already been approved by the US and the EU. They are waiting for the Chinese to give the last green light. At this point you can almost hear Motorola Mobility’s shareholders crying out to China to please hurry before they lose any more money.
via The Verge