[qi:004] CEO change has had no impact on Motorola’s fortunes. Their handset business continues to spiral downward and is turning into a downright disaster. Fourth quarter 2007 mobile phone sales slumped to 40.9 million units vs 65.7 million in 4Q 2006. Mobile division sales were down 38% year over year, with mobile devices business reporting an operating loss of $388 million. And it isn’t over: first quarter 2008 is going to be worse, with forecast for further market share losses. In comparison, other divisions including Symbol seem to be doing well.
You would think that Moto would be aware of all the overexposure of the Razr series phones and how they basically haven’t innovated at all and have milked that cow to death.
I’m sure some smarter business person than I can draw a correlation between products missing vowels and drop in sales.
Uhm… editing please. That first sentence is a disaster.
TIm,
thanks for catching the disaster and fixed.
@Nick
You are right. It was almost two years ago I started talking about how Moto was a one trick pony and doing nothing to diversify. Well, we are seeing the consequences of resting on one’s laurels for too long.
I hated my Motorola cellphone. The GUI was slow, options were put in weird places in the menu, and so on… I wondered if they’d actually let people outside the product design team play with it before releasing.
When I went looking for a better Moto phone, the choices were too confusing… RAZR, ROKR, KRZR…
So I went to Nokia. How are Nokia’s earnings?
I don’t think the CEO swap would have had much of any effect on this last quarter — cellphone development times run too long for any new CEO (whether it’s Greg Brown or anyone else) to have had an impact. Brown could only really have set in place long-term product decisions, many of which we probably won’t see until late this year at the earliest.
It’s a shame too…their Q9 smartphone is a brilliant device. But I haven’t heard anything great about any of their non-smartphones.
Is anyone surprised? I also hated my latest Moto cell phone. Worst UI ever and sluggish.
My Comcast DVR is Moto, and we’re on our third one, which still doesn’t work; never has and apparently never will.
I avoid Moto products, and I’m sure others have the same perception – which accounts for some of the slumpiness in their stock. I wouldn’t invest in a tech company such as them with zero innovation.
Another vote for moto being the worst phone ever… i hate mine as well and wouldn’t touch another motorola with a bargepole
So let’s say you’re a Moto-VP/CEO and you see the comments on this website about your products not being innovative and the UI being crap. What would the logical reaction be (next to calling McKinsey to help you out, not that it helps, but you know, it’s what you do)?
Well, I read that they are working on new phones (mostly reworked old ones and copies of the iPhone) and that they are looking at their cost structure. I’m not reading: “Will improve UI”, “Will make it fast” Will improve build quality”
as I blogged today (http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2008/01/does-your-company-have-geek-cred.html), motorola has no geek mojo. It has lost all geek cred, which is critical when you ostensibly have a platform, which is what phones are becoming. I gave motorola a geek cred rating of 4 out of 10. They are dying right before our eyes.