No Jackets Needed: Motorola Sells 2.7 Million Smartphones In Q2

Motorola Attacks Apple: The Droid X Doesn't Need A Jacket

Demonstrating Motorola’s increasing confidence in the smartphone sector, the company bought a full-page advertisement in The New York Times yesterday to poke fun at Apple’s antenna issues. “No Jacket Required,” the ad said about its high-profile launch of the Droid X and in reference to Apple’s antenna saga. “At Motorola (NYSE: MOT), we believe a customer shouldn’t have to dress up their phone for it to work properly.” Motorola is just beginning to see the results to back up its swagger.

In the second quarter, the company sold 8.3 million phones, and while that’s still down significantly from a year ago period when it sold 14.8 million, its focus on smartphones is starting to ramp up. A year ago, the company didn’t even break-out smartphone units, but in the current quarter it sold 2.7 million, increasing sequentially from 2.3 million.

Of course, Motorola still has a long way to go to match Apple’s same-period sales of 8.4 million iPhones sold. Still, the company’s financials are trending in the right direction, and the company remains on track to split into two units early next year. In the second quarter, Motorola’s cellphone unit returned to profitability, even though most of its profits are still coming from the networks equipment unit, which is being sold to Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Siemens.

Revenues in the mobile-devices segment totaled $1.7 billion, down 6 percent compared with the year-ago quarter and up 5 percent sequentially. GAAP operating earnings were $87 million, which included income from a significant legal settlement of $228 million, and compared to an operating loss of $287 million in the year-ago quarter.

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