Motorola reported a loss of US$56 million, or $0.19 per share, on net revenue of $3.3 billion for the second quarter, as the phone and tablet maker continues to struggle to make 4G products.
Revenue was up 28 percent over the second quarter in 2010. Analysts were expecting revenue of $3.1 billion. Excluding certain items, Motorola earned $0.9 per share, beating analyst expectations of $0.06 per share.
Motorola shipped 11 million mobile devices, including 4.4 million smartphones and 440,000 Xoom tablets, during the quarter. In the initial month it was available during the first quarter, Motorola sold 250,000 Xoom tablets.
The company still expects to be profitable in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2011, said Chairman and CEO Sanjay Jha in a statement about the earnings report.
After spinning off into a stand-alone company, Motorola’s handset business got off to a good start but the company has struggled recently to migrate to 4G technologies. The Xoom tablet, for instance, was supposed to get a 4G upgrade in the second quarter, but the update has been pushed back until September. Motorola announced the Droid Bionic with Verizon in January and in April said the 4G phone was coming soon, but it’s not yet available. Motorola has had problems with other devices too–users are now reporting that the recently released Triumph phone has technical problems.
Executives are expected to comment further on the quarterly earnings in a conference call later today.