Motorola Inc. said Brightstar Corp. will serve as its master services distribution partner in the United States for mobile phones. Brightstar, which is Motorola’s authorized distributor in Latin America, has been working with the company in the United States for about four years.
Under the agreement, Brightstar will act as Motorola’s U.S. distributor and will be responsible for extending Motorola’s brand penetration through procurement and fulfillment of Motorola handsets to network operators, agents and dealers, distributors and retail stores.
“The close strategic relationship that we’ve shared with Motorola is a key reason for Brightstar’s tremendous growth in the U.S.,” said Denise Gibson, Brightstar’s chief operating officer. “We look forward to continuing this successful alliance and further supporting our mutual customers in the future.”
Brightstar scored $1.2 billion in revenues last year, and distributes products from a variety of major manufacturers.
In related news, CSI Wireless said Brightstar placed additional orders for its fixed-wireless phones, the Motorola-branded FX800. The orders represent a significant demand increase compared with the second half of last year, said CSI.
“These orders are a clear signal that demand has recovered,” said Stephen Verhoeff, CSI’s president and chief executive officer. “During 2003, we enhanced the fixed-wireless telephone business model through reduced manufacturing costs. This has resulted in improved margins to CSI, together with reductions in the end price to the customer.
“The lower selling price has stimulated demand-and while our revenue per unit has decreased, the actual profit per unit has increased,” continued Verhoeff. “Recent product re-engineering will reduce the cost of the FX800 even further during the second quarter of 2004. As a result of these changes, and based upon market forecasts, we are anticipating volumes for 2004 to exceed those realized in 2003.”
Fixed-wireless primarily is used in developing countries to bypass the last-mile of the telecommunications networks. Telcel, Mexico’s largest cellular carrier, is the primary customer for the FX800, said CSI.
In other phone distribution news, CellStar Corp. reported improved end-of-year results. The company’s fourth-quarter revenues stood at $498.1 million, up from the $430.4 million it reported in the same quarter a year ago. CellStar’s consolidated net income totaled $3.7 million, up from the net loss of $41.6 million it reported in the same quarter a year ago.
“We are delighted to report positive results for the quarter. We were particularly pleased to see the China markets recover from SARS. Shipments during the fourth quarter were the strongest that we have seen in the region for several quarters,” said Terry Parker, the company’s CEO. “Even though profits improved in Asia from the third quarter, we were still impacted by some lingering effects of SARS. Although our overall inventory levels were down, we still have excess inventory on certain product lines, and as a result took a $4.3 million inventory reserve in the fourth quarter.”
CellStar said it handled 4.3 million handsets in the fourth quarter.
