Motorola Posts Profit; Could New Phones Keep Momentum Going?

For the period, Motorola posted a profit of $12 million, or a penny a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $397 million, or 18 cents a share. Revenue, however, plunged 28 percent to $5.45 billion, mainly because of faltering handset sales. Motorola Mobile Devices reported quarterly sales of $1.7 billion on shipments of 13.6 million handsets; however, that still resulted in a division operating loss of $183 million. The company, once riding high on sales of its wildly popular Razr cell phone introduced in 2004, has struggled to develop a follow-up act.

The Cliq and the Droid are set for release for the holiday shopping season. "The introductions of our new products powered by [Google's] Android [operating system] are important milestones as we begin to address the mobilization of the Internet and the growing demand for modern smartphones," Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Mobile Devices, said. "Next year, we will continue to expand our smartphone portfolio and deliver improved financial results."