Motorola AURA to sell on a burn-after-using basis

04 Nov, 2008
Some leaked information suggested that the Motorola AURA will be sold along with a contract that forbids the second hand reselling of the highly expensive device. In an attempt to preserve the exclusiveness...

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  • D
  • David
  • p8c
  • 04 Nov 2008

Motorola's handset division recorded a loss of $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007, while the company as a whole earned $100 million during that quarter. It lost several key executives to rivals and the web site TrustedReviews has called the company's products repetitive and uninnovative. Motorola laid off 3,500 workers in January 2008, followed by a further 4,000 job cuts in June and another 20% cut of its research division a few days later. In July 2008, a large number of executives left Motorola to work on Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Facing bankruptcy, the company has been put on offer for sale to several other major rivals such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson, yet all have rejected the offer. In July 2008, analyst Mark McKechnie from American Technology Research said that Motorola "would be lucky to fetch $500 million" for selling its handset business and analyst Richard Windsor said that Motorola might have to pay someone to take the division off the company and that the company may even exit the handset market altogether. Its global market share has been on the decline; from 18.4% of the market in 2007, it had a share of just 9.7% by 2008.

This is official public knowledge, both in finacial papers and stock market. They actually offered the company to Ericsson for 900 milj dollars. Everyone knows that nobody can financialy touch Nokia in this line of business, and even Ericsson is worth n estimate of 76 billion dollars. All these Motorola 14 year old Moto fans claiming that Motorola is rank third and Ericsson is ranked fifth is actually absolutely right. The only problem is that they are looking at rank of sold units, not financial profit. Motorola have a good market for 50 dollar phones in third world countries while Ericsson makes most phones for developed countries with good data traffic and so on. Moto needs to sell eight 50 dollar phones to make the same profit as 1 high end Ericsson phone. Motorola has a big share of the sold unit rank, but are just smalltimers in the financial department.

    • S
    • SE + Nokia Fan
    • i}d
    • 04 Nov 2008

    Sounds like a very desperate move from Motorola...
    Maybe some desperate ways to gain some more cash before crash & burn?
    I will not be surprised if after a few handsets are sold, Motorola just closed their mobile phone division forever...
    Poor thing - the used to be leader of cell phones is eaten alive by its competitors...

      • O
      • Ole
      • G2G
      • 04 Nov 2008

      zorkor, 04 Nov 2008Does Motorola thinks this is the 90's where they can put an... moreHey, don´t worry about it... believe me... people who buy this phone will be able to sell it in about a week or two... that is right after Moto goes bankrupt... lol

        • J
        • Jason
        • u{E
        • 04 Nov 2008

        I can buy 3 LG Renoir with this price -_-
        yea... i'd rather buy one Renoir for myself and buy two more inov8 for poor kids than buying this old fashion, diamondless, goldless stainless steel phone...

          • z
          • zorkor
          • Svq
          • 04 Nov 2008

          Does Motorola thinks this is the 90's where they can put any price stage they want? First its such a damn expensive phone and second they are going to dictate us what to do with the phone. Yeah right. As if they world is dying to get this phone. I rather have a 2000 dollar gaming rig than a pathetic phone from a dying company like Motorola. Oh yeah, I can buy any 20 dollar cheap phone to make calls while playing games on my 2000 dollar gaming rig.

            • N
            • Nirodha
            • i2G
            • 04 Nov 2008

            Hmm? I'm going to pay $2K for a phone and Motorola thinks they can tell me what I can do with it afterwards? I don't think so!

              • j
              • johndru
              • uS@
              • 04 Nov 2008

              motorola is making non-sense phones. the hell do we care. we need a phone.. with AT LEAST decent FEATURES and CAMERA.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • iiY
                • 04 Nov 2008

                its ugly anyways, who would pay $2000 for a fone thats so ugly, then realise its crap and the motorola buy it back for less than half the price, i dont think so

                  • a
                  • a
                  • mAM
                  • 04 Nov 2008

                  WOW !! Phones in Leasing , what's comming next ???

                    • K
                    • Karthic
                    • vG0
                    • 04 Nov 2008

                    Motorola is a giant

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