Motorola’s mobile device segment boosted by the launch of the CDMA Rival A455

Sharon

Sharon Gill

4th August 2009

Motorola reported an operating loss of $253 million for Q2 2009, compared with losses of $509 million in the Q1 2009 and $346 million in the second quarter of last year.

The division posted sales of $1.8 billion – down 45% from the prior year period.

The company shipped 14.8 million handsets during the second quarter, claiming an estimated global handset market share of 5.5%.

The division's performance was boosted by the launch of the CDMA Rival^TM A455 (a side-slider with one-touch messaging access and QWERTY keyboard), the 3G Karma^TM QA1 (a slide-out QWERTY with one-click access to Facebook and MySpace) and the iDEN Clutch^TM i465 (Motorola's first device that combines the power of push-to-talk and the convenience of a QWERTY keyboard).

The company plans to further boost its sales for the year with the launch of differentiated smartphone devices in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Motorola has also opened the door for accelerated development on Android, with the launch of advanced Android development resources through MOTODEV, including a new App Accelerator Program and MOTODEV Studio for Android Beta.

MOTODEV will offer developers early access to a new suite of Google Android developer tools and programs, and the next MOTODEV Summit (in October) will offer advanced training and information-gathering. The program is intended to accelerate the development of applications to be used on Motorola's mobile devices using the Android operating system scheduled to ship later this year.

According to Christy Wyatt, vice president of Software Platforms & Ecosystem at Motorola, the company believes Android and open software has the freedom and flexibility to foster innovation, accelerate time to market, and deliver the most personal and customised mobile experiences for consumers.

To give developers a head start in creating apps that realise the full power of Android and use Motorola's newest handset features, the company invites developers to join MOTODEV's App Accelerator Program. Select developers will be able to submit their applications to Motorola and leverage the opportunity to distribute through a variety of channels, including carrier stores, the Android Market and third-party distributors.

In addition, the program will specifically offer developers:

Early access to tools, technical specs, documentation and other development support resources
Exclusive pre-release access to upcoming Motorola devices for testing and debugging
Direct access to Motorola's developer support engineers via private discussion boards
Maximum market exposure for applications as soon as new mobile devices ship to users

Motorola will also make publicly available theMOTODEV Studio for Android Beta – a powerful Eclipse- based integrated development environment that works with Google's software development kit.

Among the resources available to developers are design and development tools; handset emulators and virtual testing labs;intuitive interfaces for deploying applications;application creation wizards and frequently used code templates; and access to marketing anddistribution channels.

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