Report finds handheld device market in continued decline
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The worldwide market for handheld devices saw its third successive quarter of year-over-year decline in the third quarter of 2004, according to a new report released by IDC.
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(InfoWorld) - Two days after it restructured operations, MotorolaÂ on Thursday reported that flagging sales of mobile devices were a factor in its second-quarter loss of $28 million, or $0.01 per share. The telecommunications device maker posted income of $1.38 million, or $0.55 cents a share, one year earlier. Revenue declined by 19 percent to $8.73 billion from $10.82 billion one year earlier. The drop was expected: Motorola issuedÂ preliminary financialsÂ last week, warning that its results would be lower than had been forecast. The company said Thursday that excluding one-time costs, it would have earned $0.02 per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, who revised estimates lower after last week's warning, were forecasting break-even results on sales of $8.64 billion. Layoffs and other one-time charges were responsible for losses amounting to $0.04 per share. But the loss for the quarter underscores the company's beleaguered mobile device business, which has been outflanked by rivals including Apple. The pressure will continue. Motorola announced that it expects earnings in the third quarter to be equal to or slightly higher than the second quarter, and that its mobile devices unit will probably not be profitable this year. The company saw a drop in mobile device sales in Asia, a hot market where vendors are trying to get a big share of the market in fast growing economies, as North American and European markets become saturated with mobile phones. Motorola has taken steps to address its problems. The vendor announced Tuesday that it's restructuring into three business divisions: Mobile Devices, Home and Networks Mobility, and Enterprise Mobility Solutions. It also has a new chief of its mobile unit, Stu Reed. Motorola CEO Ed Zander has beenÂ under pressureÂ to resign. He attracted criticism from big-name investor Carl Icahn earlier this year, and recently has been attacked by activist shareholder Eric Jackson for the way he's running the company. Although Motorola has taken steps to cut costs, a core challenge for the company is product design in the competitive handset arena. ItsÂ Razr deviceÂ was praised for its design, but in a fast-paced market quickly became an also-ran, under a barrage of products from rivals that in addition to Apple include Nokia, Samsung Electronics, and LG Electronics. Despite expecting mobile phone sales to be under increasing pressure, Motorola did say that it expected its overall financial results to improve during the second half of the year. Thursday morning, Motorola shares were trading at $18.18, up $0.18 from its opening. Â
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Analysts expect mobile telecom services will grow more than 5 percent per year, but equipment market will shrink.
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SACRAMENTO BEE. NINTENDO has been on top of the handheld gaming market for 15 years. Its various Game Boy machines have sold more than 100 million units since the first model.
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Shares of Applied Digital Solutions and its publicly traded subsidiary, VeriChip, fell as investors reacted to a report over the weekend linking the tiny radio device to cancer.
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PC World reviewer says Windows XP-based handheld's poor design and performance make it tough to recommend.
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Motorola executives said demand for the companyâs cellphones had slowed and the company was losing market share.
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Gadgets have been getting smaller and  smaller for years as technology companies shrink more circuitry  into tiny electronic devices.
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palmOne is at the head of a downward spiral of the PDA market according to research group IDC. IDC&#39;s figures showed a 8.7 per cent slump year on year for the third quarter of 2004 - the third successive quarter of year on year decline.
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Sony's handheld is still lagging behind the massive sales figures of the mighty Nintendo DS.
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Dark days are coming for analog cellular phones.
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If a handheld device doesn&#39;t have voice capabilities, a growing number of users around the world aren&#39;t interested, according to IDC.
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Mobile phones are not linked to health problems when used for 10 years or less, but further research is needed into their longer-term impact and their effect on children, according to a report released today.
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InfoWorld - Amid increasing competition in a fickle cell phone market, Motorola expects to report a loss for its mobile devices business in 2007 and now estimates that second quarter sales will be lower than expected.
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Microsoft Corp. is no longer an also-ran in the market for handheld computer software. For the last three months, gadgets running the software giant&#39;s Windows Mobile operating system outsold
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If a handheld device doesn't have voice capabilities, a growing number of users around the world aren't interested, according to IDC. For the third straight quarter, shipments of handheld devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) fell as some prominent vendors decided to pull back from the market, IDC said Wednesday.
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Digital cameras led retail price declines in U.S. consumer electronics in October, as manufacturers looked to clear out older models ahead of the holiday shopping season, according to an industry study prepared for Reuters.