Motorola Mobility warns that Apple iPhone could hurt Q1 earnings

Recently independent Motorola Mobility announced its first earnings report as a stand-alone company. Revenue totaled $3.4 billion in Q4, up 21% from the prior year. For all of fiscal 2010, the mobile devices maker scored revenue of $11.5 billion, up 4% from a year earlier.

On a GAAP basis, Fourth quarter profits of $80 million trounced the 2009 quarter's loss of $204 million. For the full year, the company lost $.29 cents per share vs. a loss of $4.56 per share last year. Cash flow was positive to the tune of $225 million and $606 million for the quarter and the year. The company did receive $3.2 billion in cash as part of the terms of the spin off.

In the last quarter, Motorola Mobility shipped 4.9 million smartphones and 13.7 units were shipped for 2010. Total phones shipped were 11.3 million in Q4 and 37.3 for the entire year. Seven new smartphones were launched in the fourth period including the Motorola DROID Pro and Motorola DROID 2 Global. The company rolled out 23 new models to the market over the course of the year.
 
Q1 is expected to see the company report operating earnings at breakeven although the bottom line will show a net loss of $26 million to $62 million, which should result in an earnings per share loss of 9 cents to 21 cents per share. CEO Sanjay Jha blames one specific device for the weak current quarter. Jha said, "Since the announcement of the iPhone [on Verizon] we have seen some slowdown in our sell-through of our devices, because clearly there's an anticipation of the devices coming to Verizon. We have seen that even prior to the iPhone launching."

source: BGR, ComputerWorld