Motorola Inc. will miss out on the critical camera-phone rush during the holiday season, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless said.
Jim Gerace, a spokesman for the nation’s largest carrier, said Motorola delayed the introduction of its new camera phone for Verizon Wireless until after the critical holiday shopping season. Motorola also delayed the introduction of a separate color screen phone. Gerace could not provide the phone’s model number.
Motorola did not immediately respond to calls for comment.
According to various outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, many products within Motorola’s new line of camera phones won’t be available for the critical Christmas shopping season this year. Motorola’s stock was down about 5 percent to $11.91 per share following the news.
The news comes several weeks after Motorola reported similar delays in its line of GSM phones, which the company at the time said would stretch until October.
Motorola’s camera-phone delays also come on the heels of the departure of the company’s chief executive, Chris Galvin. Investors cheered the news of Galvin’s exit, citing just such product delays as a major reason for Motorola’s poor performance.
The No. 2 mobile-phone maker in the world, Motorola’s market share in the second quarter clocked in at about 14 percent, according to Strategy Analytics. The company is about 5 points ahead of No. 3 player Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. but way behind market leader Nokia Corp., which claims about 37 percent of the market. Further, Motorola’s phone business reported operating margins of just 3.3 percent for the second quarter. In comparison, Nokia reported operating margins of 23 percent and Samsung of 19 percent. Such numbers gain even greater significance due to Motorola’s revenue spread-mobile phones account for about 40 percent of the company’s sales.
In other Motorola news, the company announced it will supply the chips for a new attachment for Nintendo’s popular Game Boy Advanced device. Motorola said the new 2.4GHz radio-frequency chipset allows up to five players to wirelessly play each other. The technology uses a TDMA communication protocol.
