Motorola posted their third quarter results last night, and they’re less than awesome. Revenue was a total of $3.3 billion, which resulted in a net loss of $32 million, which is only a little bit better than the $34 million they lost around the same time last year. If that didn’t sting enough, their Q3 Xoom tablet sales totalled only 100,000 in the quarter, even with an LTE upgrade. By comparison, Apple solid 9.25 million iPads in their Q3; even RIM managed to sell 200,000 PlayBooks (though it’s a slightly newer device). 4.8 million smartphones were shipped, among a total of 11.6 mobile devices.
Man, it’s a good thing Google’s buying Motorola, because the manufacturer really can’t seem to catch a break on their own. The new RAZR looks slick, for sure, but if Motorola wants a piece of the tablet market, they’re going to have to make something close in quality to Samsung, hopefully without the lawsuits. It’s too bad that splitting the company up into separate business and consumer entities didn’t enable them to refocus efforts, but maybe the Google perspective will help them get back on track.
You can find Motorola’s full Q3 2011 financial results in this PDF. If you guys had any advice for Motorola, what would it be?