Motorola Posts Quarterly Loss; Samsung Passes Motorola and Nabs the No. 2 Spot

[Kris Kumar]

Looks like Motorola has lost its RAZR momentum. Samsung recently dethroned Motorola from the number 2 spot. While the margin is not big, the bad news for Motorola is that Samsung's handset shipments are rising and Moto's is falling. While Motorola has announced a slew of products in the recent times, that too in a variety of colors, nothing seems to be helping it capture the attention of the buyers like the RAZR.

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Kris-Moto-20070720.jpg

When the Q was launched on Verizon over an year ago, it was touted as the form-factor or a platform on which other products will be based. While we have seen leaked photos and reviews, we haven't seen the update to the original Q. And also missing from the carriers line-up is the GSM version. On top of the delayed execution, it seems like Motorola is paying to much attention to the external appearance. The original CDMA Q suffered from poor battery life and from what I have learnt from the informal reviews of the pre-production update to the CDMA Q, the battery life is still an issue. Hoping that Motorola regains its act, and starts focusing on execution and quality.

Some of the related news stories:
Samsung passes Motorola, nabs No. 2 market-share ranking (http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070713/FREE/70713003/1015/rss01)
Motorola posts quarterly loss, revenue down (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070719/bs_nm/motorola_results_dc)
Motorola Announces Reorganization (http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070719/tc_pcworld/134737)

[Mike Temporale]

I think Moto had the right idea. The Q is a great device - but they let the cat out way too early and then they were slow at releasing updates and V2's. If they had moved a little quicker, I think the Q would be alone at the top right now.

I still think Moto has a great chance at taking a controlling share of the market.

[randalllewis]

I've gone on and on here before about the importance of marketing, so, ahem, here we go again. Samsung and Moto have both developed good looking and full featured smartphones. Moto did a good job of advertising the Q when it was new but it is nearly invisible now and there have been no variations or new Q's yet to keep the mojo going. Samsung on the other hand has the Blackjack well placed on television and both main stream and upscale magazines. Plus, they are turning out good looking new models all the time. I have really begun to notice a lot of Samsung phones in people's hands. To top that off, the company has a great gimmick running right now at some airports. I've been to both LAX and JFK in recent weeks and in both places, there are multiple Samsung charging stations. While you have your phone plugged in to this free service, you naturally have to stay nearby and look at the Samsung models displayed on the station. Elsewhere in the airport, Samsung has display ads telling you about the service and how it is a way of saying thank you to customers on the company's 10th anniversary of selling mobile phones in the US. Samsung is a company that has become a player because it has focused on quality, design and that all important part of the equation: marketing. Moto has shown it knows how to do it too, but has recently dropped the ball.

[yslee]

The Q and the i60x devices aren't going to be the reason why the above event has happened; it's probably due to Samsung's successful Ultra series. People who buy the phones we use make up a small portion of the market.

Edit: Hehe, just read a news article. Even Samsung themselves say it's partly due to the Ultra phones. Talk about a succesful realignment of a company's strategy.

[Kris Kumar]

I have an interesting story (I wish I had taken pictures) that shows how Moto is wasting money.

While I was in India, I bought for my dad the Moto software sync tool so that he can tranfer the contacts from desktop to RAZR. While I was annoyed that it cost over $25 (Microsoft ActiveSync is free, wish I had a WinMo5 spare unit to hand over to him), I decided to download it and help save dad some time. After I got back, there was a package (size of a show box) sitting at our door step from Moto. Excited I thought it was a review unit, but the box was light. I open it up - found two air pillows to package a small wallet sized pamphlet that open up to A4 size paper with instructions on how to install the software and also the receipt for the purchase. Isn't that awesome? Moto wasted the money I paid for an over-priced software on shipping me a silly installer pamphlet in a shoe box sized package. :twisted: Couldn't they have mailed it in an envelope?

[Mike Temporale]

Or better yet, just made it downloadable along with the installer. ;)