motorola

Yesterday, Motorola laid a bit of a bombshell on the cell phone world. The company announced it was considering a "structural realignment" to rejuvenate its mobile device business. Though the company had a huge hit with its ultrathin Razr V3 in late 2004, Moto has been struggling to regain solid footing over the last couple years. It could bask in the Razr glow for only so long before customers started to demand more devices that weren't just Razr refreshes. The company's continued uneven performance eventually led to the departure of CEO Ed Zander last November. And … Read more

Motorola, the third largest cell phone maker in the world, may spin off its handset business as it tries to turn around its business, the company said Thursday.

In a statement issued after the market closed, Motorola said that it was exploring "strategic alternatives" that might include a possible separation of its mobile-device business from its other business units.

"We are exploring ways in which our mobile-devices business can accelerate its recovery and retain and attract talent while enabling our shareholders to realize the value of this great franchise," said President and CEO Greg Brown.

The … Read more

Phone designers are still experimenting with ways to make handsets with built-in speakers--Sony Ericsson being the latest among them--but others are going the external route for now. Namely, Motorola.

The "EQ5 Portable Wireless Speaker" has a more traditional design than some of the alternatives we've seen (thankfully), making it versatile enough to be used as a Bluetooth speakerphone as well as for music. It claims to have significant noise reduction and "echo-cancellation" technologies, according to Newlaunches, while measuring just 4.6 inches long, 2.6 inches tall, and barely half an inch thick.

Like other … Read more

What separates the mobile handset winners from the losers? The answer seems to be success in developing markets like China, India, the Middle East, and Africa.

On Thursday Nokia announced that it had sold a record 133.5 million mobile phones during the fourth quarter of 2007. This figure was up by more than a quarter from the same period a year earlier, boosting its overall market share to 40 percent.

Meanwhile, Nokia rival Motorola reported Wednesday that shipments of its handsets had fallen 38 percent during the quarter, pushing its market share down yet again to 12 percent, the … Read more

Once the second-largest handset maker in the world, Motorola has fallen from grace in what is looking more and more like a death spiral.

On Wednesday, the company's stock dropped more than 22 percent, to $9.55, in midday trading, after the company reported an 84 percent decline in fourth-quarter profit, due mostly to sharp declines in its handset business. The company's newly appointed CEO, Greg Brown, further spooked investors by saying during the conference call with analysts and investors that a turnaround of the handset division "will take longer than expected." Motorola had been counting … Read more

Sorry--I'm a couple days late with this, but I was a bit distracted by Macworld yesterday. Yes, there are other cell phones than the iPhone, and Moto gave us a new one yesterday with the i570 for Sprint Nextel. Like the recent i335 the i570 takes after the Nextel-branded phones of a couple years ago by running only on the iDEN network and offering a rugged shell that's built to last. The flip-phone offers a monochrome external display, a color internal display and all the Nextel features you'd expect including Direct Connect push-to-talk support, voice dialing, a … Read more

Since the Motorola Rokr E8 nabbed CNET's Best of CES award in the cell phones and smartphones category, it's appopriate to give you an idea of how the phone feels beyond just a list of specs. At 4.52 inches by 2.09 inches by 0.42 inch, it has an average size for a cell phone, and it's actually a bit heavier than I expected at 3.5 ounces. I didn't mind the weight, however, as it gave the E8 a solid and sturdy feel in the hand.

The Rokr's showpiece is, of course, … Read more

Motorola has unveiled the Motorola S9-HD stereo Bluetooth headset, a successor to the Motorola Rokr S9 Bluetooth Active headset from last year. Like the S9, the S9-HD hangs behind the head with the player controls on the side, thus maximizing your freedom of movement while on the treadmill or the track. The S9-HD has a nice bonus though--it now comes with high-definition sound with SRS WOW HD and improved earbuds to block out more noise. It has a rated battery life of six hours of play time and weighs about an ounce overall. Not too sure about the pricing or … Read more

In addition to its high-end Z10 and Rokr E8 cell phones, Moto also used CES to quietly roll out two new W-series handsets with the W230 and W270. Though the two handsets look relatively ordinary--the W230 is a basic candy bar model, while the W270 is a simple flip phone--they do more than just make calls. Each phone features a dedicated music key that activates the integrated digital music player. You also get Moto's CrystalTalk technology, an FM radio, USB 1.1, a microSD card slot, text and multimedia messaging, and basic organizer applications. And in a nice change, … Read more