Mobifun’s Weblog

Motorola announced continued losses for its handset unit today, sending its shares down by as much as 16% in morning trading.  The U.S. handset manufacturer said it expects to post an operating loss for the current quarter due to a slower than expected recovery in its handset business.  The announcement overshadowed the company’s Q4 results, which, while not positive, were in line with expectations.

For Q4, Motorola posted an operating loss of $388 million, compared with a profit of $341 million for the same quarter a year earlier. Sales of mobile phones fell 38% to $4.8 billion, with 40.9 million units sold.

Motorola’s new CEO Greg Brown admitted the company’s previous strategy to return the handset business to profitability was not working. “We are focused on aggressively rationalizing the company’s cost structure and working to get Mobile Devices back on track,” Brown said, via a statement. “The recovery in Mobile Devices will take longer than expected and there is a lot more work to be done.”

For the current quarter, the company forecast continuing operating losses per share of 5 to 7 cents, before any reorganization charges, while analysts had expected a profit of as much as 10 cents per share for the first quarter of 2008.

In more bad news for Motorola, the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) has launched an investigation of insider trading regarding the company’s purchase of TTP Communications in 2006. The FSA accused Christopher McQuoid and James Melbourne, former general counsel for TTP Communications, of having knowledge of Motorola’s plans to purchase the company, when the two purchased more than 153,000 shares in the company. Both pleaded not guilty.

Palm has announced lowered second-quarter expectations, saying that losses will be higher than it previously anticipated. The Treo maker attributed the increased losses to delayed product cycles.

The company said it now expects sales to tally between $345 million and $350 million for the quarter; Palm earlier had predicted sales of between $370 million to $380 million. Palm said it now expects losses between 8 and 10 cents per share, excluding some 1-time costs; previously, the company had announced expected losses of 1 to 3 cents per share. For the same quarter last year, Palm earned 12 cents per share on sales of $393 million.

Nokia 6300 Series 40 set is still the top seller device in UK - got Ist position in Prepaid and on third number in post paid connections.

Post Paid - Top Sellers

1. Samsung U600
2. Nokia 8600
3. Nokia 6300
4. Nokia N95
5. Sony Ericsson K810i
6. Nokia 6288
7. Sony Ericsson W880i
8. LG KE850
9. Motorola K1
10. Sony Ericsson S500i
11. Sony Ericsson W610i
12. Samsung E840
13. Nokia N73
14. Motorola RAZR2 V8
15. Nokia 7373
16. Sony Ericsson K610i
17. Samsung D900
18. Sony Ericsson K800i

 PrePaid - Top sellers

1. Nokia 6300
2. Samsung E250
3. Sony Ericsson W810i
4. Sony Ericsson K510i
5. Sony Ericsson W850i
6. Nokia 5300
7. Samsung U600
8. Nokia 2310
9. Nokia 6080
10. Nokia 1600
11. LG KG800
12. Samsung C300
13. Nokia 6085
14. Emblaze Lobster 320
15. Sony Ericsson K550i
16. LG KE970
17. Sony Ericsson W300i
18. Sony Ericsson K800i
19. Nokia 7373

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Click Here for Downloading Mobile Games and Applications for Nokia 6300

LG Electronics announced its first high-end cameraphone, the LG Viewty. The handset, designed for easy sending, sharing and viewing of photos and video, is scheduled for release in Europe in mid-October, with worldwide release scheduled for the end of this year. An LG executive told Reuters that the company hopes to win 10% to 15% of this market segment within about a year.

Reuters also reported that the phone will include a touchscreen, a 5.1-megapixel camera and a hot key for uploading videos to YouTube.

LG also announced its first Windows Mobile-based smartphone the LG-KS20, which includes a touchscreen and HSDPA connections.

Source: http://www.wirelessweek.com/Article-LG-New-Handsets.aspx

Nokia said that a defective component in the microphone has caused a shortage of the E90 Communicator, the handset maker’s flagship business phone. The company said that customers have complained about background noise during calls and that the interference was caused by a defective component in the microphone.

The E90 Communicator was first unveiled in February, and was scheduled to be widely available during the third quarter. The microphone issue, as well as some problems with the keyboard scratching the screen, has set back availability on the smartphone. Nokia did not say when the Communicator’s availability would be back on track.

CLICK HERE  for Mobile Applications,Games and Softwares for E90

The use of blocking technology to combat cellphone use in prisons was a world first, he said.

It was estimated the crackdown would cost the Government around $5 million to implement.

A joint memorandum was signed this morning between the Government, the Corrections Department, Vodafone and Telecom, to work together to combat unauthorised use of cellphones in prisons.

Confiscations of cellphones, which are banned in prisons, have skyrocketed in recent years along with the number of cases of their use to organise crime from behind bars.

The issue came to light again in the past week when it was revealed a Rimutaka Prison inmate used his cellphone to organise the importation of methamphetamine with a street value of $1 million from Thailand. Mr O’Connor said the parties had tested about 30 technological options to find the best way to stamp out cellphone use.

Jamming cellphone transmissions within prison walls was found to be the most effective, but would not suit all prisons.

Where residents were living close to prison walls, and there was a chance their cellphone coverage would be compromised by the blocking technology, other systems would be used.

“Telecom and Vodafone are concerned about the potential effects on legitimate users,” Mr O’Connor said.

Detection devices would instead be used to pick up when a cellphone was being used within a prison

The Nokia Corporation reinforced its position as the world’s top cellphone maker in a strong second quarter, reporting an increase in its market share on Thursday amid surging growth in emerging markets.Its earnings beat market expectations, and its stock rose 8 percent.

Net profit for the April-June period rose to 2.82 billion euros ($3.85 billion) from 1.14 billion euros in 2006, the Finnish company said. Sales grew 28 percent, to 12.6 billion euros from 9.8 billion euros.

Nokia sold 100 million mobile devices in the period, an increase of 29 percent over 2006, while the overall industry growth was about 14 percent, with 262 million mobile devices sold globally, Nokia said.

But the group again warned about the performance of its troubled network operations, describing market conditions as challenging because of heavy competition.

“We shall have to increase the amount and speed of cost cutting,” the chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, said, giving no details.

The greatest growth in Nokia’s handset sales, 37 percent, was in the Middle East and Africa, it said. But at 36 percent growth, sales were also strong in the Asia-Pacific region and in China.