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• Nokia sucks more air out of handsets

  Posted Jul 17 2008, 05:52 AM by Douglas McIntyre
  Filed under: Apple, Nokia, Research in Motion, Motorola
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  Nokia had a stronger second quarter than most people expected. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Nokia said sales rose to €13.15 billion from €12.59 billion. Analysts expected sales of €12.86 billion."

  Just as important, Nokia's global market share rose to 40% from 39% last year and the company shipped 122 million handsets. A great deal of the improvement came due to sales of units in India and China.

  This is not exactly good news for companies like Motorola, RIM, and Apple. The US and EU are becoming modest to zero growth markets for handsets. Improving prospects in the areas where they market most of their products won't be of any help this year.   Read More...

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• Solar-powered iPhone?

  Posted May 27 2008, 11:00 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Apple, Motorola
  Rating:

  A solar-powered iPhone? That's one prediction being tossed around today after news of Apple's patent application for layering solar cells below an LCD display. Sunlight passing through the screen on a device could be turned into power. The patent describes a way for a device to show its solar charge level on screen next to the battery life indicator. Apple shares, by the way, are up more than 1% today to $184.06.
  

  Forbes imagines a future where devices get all their juice from the sun, and can go off the grid. If only it were that easy. Engineers at Motorola and other companies have been looking at this problem for a long time. As the technology stands now, you'd have to lay your phone in the sun half the day to get a full charge.   Read More...

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• Rating the world's most powerful brands

  Posted Apr 22 2008, 04:43 AM by Douglas McIntyre
  Filed under: Google, Apple, Cisco, eBay, Motorola, Oracle, Citigroup, Ford, Starbucks, IBM
  Rating:

  Once a year, the firm Millard Brown puts out its BrandZ 100 Most Valuable Brands. The data used for the list come from consumer research and financial data on the companies. The research house gives its methodology here.

  For those who think Google is the top brand, give yourself a pat on the back. It has a brand valuation of $86 billion, up 30%. For those research mavens in the crowd, the figure makes absolutely no sense. Google has a market cap of $168 billion. Most of that would go away -- no matter how good the technology is -- if it changed it name to Dawdle.   Read More...

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• Motorola not throwing in the towel yet

  Posted Jan 29 2008, 12:52 PM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Apple, Nokia, Motorola

  Let's be clear about one thing: Motorola is not quitting handsets. Some irresponsible bloggers are suggesting otherwise today with headlines like "Moto Knocked out of Handset Business?" The blogosphere needs to take a deep breath before spreading false rumors.

  All this because an analyst tossed around the idea in a report before dismissing it. Richard Windsor of Nomura International said his research shows that Motorola might exit the handset business and "concentrate on becoming an enterprise and government company." But Windsor goes on to say he thinks Motorola will "remain in its current form and return to some semblance of profitability after a very difficult 2008."

  The headline of the Windsor's note, Barron's notes, is "Motorola - Handsets to Stay." Motorola shares are largely unaffected by the attention today.   Read More...

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• Goodbye Moto

  Posted Nov 20 2007, 11:32 AM by Robert Walberg
  Filed under: Apple, Research in Motion, Motorola
  Rating:

  

  Like the song says, "some say love is a Razr that leaves your soul to bleed." Well, my soul has bled waiting for Motorola's stock to turn around.  I can't wait any longer -- I'm not Job, after all.

  Motorola has been screwing up for so long, it even gets it wrong when it gets it right. Last quarter the company delivered another lousy set of sales and earnings numbers, yet it guided fiscal fourth-quarter earnings to a range of 13 to 14 cents a share -- a few pennies above The Street's consensus.  Normally, guiding estimates higher would be perceived as a good thing, and it was at first as the stock edged higher on the news.  However, in offering up hope for the fourth quarter and the upcoming year, CEO Ed Zander might have won himself a new contract. And that's bad news.  

  You see one of the reasons I bought Motorola's stock down at its lows was in anticipation of a new management team.  Typically when a struggling company finally ousts its old CEO in favor of someone new and full of promise, the underlying stock tends to rally. Until recently, Zander's ouster was all but certain. But in light of the company's modest progress off a terrible set of numbers, Zander might just hang around.  Let's face it, he did take all the credit for the Razr so there might be a board member or two who thinks he's on the verge of another one-hit wonder.   Read More...

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