For the last two years, investors have been calling for Motorola to bring out some decent new phones. The calls turned to pleas on Tuesday after its bleak results and a weak outlook.

Analysts are calling Motorola’s promise to introduce advanced devices in time for the holiday season, based on Google’s Android operating system, as the company’s last chance. In a research report entitled “Last Hurrah” Nomura analyst Richard Windsor put it bluntly:

I think if Android fails to deliver the needed revenue and profit recovery, then the focus will be oriented on managing the business for oblivion.

Motorola Co-CEO Sanjay Jha said the company will make fewer devices this year and instead put efforts into getting multiple Android products to market by the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth quarter.

In the meantime the company is planning for a toned-down display at Mobile World Congress, the annual wireless trade show held in Barcelona later this month. All units - mobile devices, home and networks and enterprise mobility - will have a presence. Spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said “We do have a Motorola booth there. It may be a little different and more focussed on customer meetings.”

The company is also narrowing its focus to the Americas and China, and zoning in on mid-tier ($50 to $200) data-centric devices with an emphasis on data services and social networking as well as higher-end devices. This means that devices cheaper than $50, a big chunk of the market, will take a back seat. Jha’s rationale is that carriers, looking for a shot in the arm of their own, would be more ready to subsidize fancier cellphones that they see helping to boost data revenue.

Motorola’s market share has fallen to 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter from 18.4 percent in Q1 of 2007 and more than 20 percent at its peak when demand for Razr was strong. Goldman analyst Simona Jankowski said it makes sense to refocus even though it makes it very difficult for Motorola “to go back to where they were” in terms of market share.
“They have to be good at something even though it’s small as opposed to being mediocre at a lot of things,” she said.

(Reuters photos: Motorola Renew phone, setting up its stand at CES 2007)

The Web may be buzzing with stories about whether computer maker Dell should or shouldn’t get into the cell phone market, but the company itself  has tried to stay out of the public discussion. 
Michael Dell said on Friday that reports of Dell’s cell phone ambitions were “best described as a rumor” when chased by reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

The analysts had this to say about the computer maker doing battle with rivals such as Apple in the cut throad phone market as well as in computers. 

 Some were encouraging:

“This strategy makes a lot of sense. Smartphones are a big opportunity and in a way they’re canibalizing notebook and netbook sales to a degree,” said Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu. “It’s probably minor today but could become bigger over time as smartphones get more powerful. It’s better to go embrace the threat than doing nothing.”

He added, “They’re used to competition. It’s not easy. But against Apple and Research In Motion it’s going to be particularly difficult … What it boils down to is price and a decent brand name. Dell has a decent brand name.” he said.  “The risk is that its tough to differentiate. Apple and Rim in particular are very tough competition. Not even the Nokias, the Motorolas, LGs and Samsungs have figured out how to compete with them yet.” 

Others were skeptical Dell could succeed:   

“It’s doubtful that Dell ends up being anything more than noise in this market. it will probably end up being one of their forays that doesn’t amount to much,” said Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar. “Its highly unlikely they’ll get sponsorship from the major carriers. Its going to be a me too product … what is it they’re going to bring to the table? The only factor they can differentiate is on price.”

Reporting by Emma Thomasson and Nichola Groom in Davos

(Photo: Reuters)

The official start of the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas saw PDA pioneer Palm unveiling its answer to the popular iPhone smartphone and a new, Web-oriented operating system. Investors pushed the stock up 30 percent for two consecutive days and bloggers affirmed their optimism in early hands-on reviews.

Gizmodo’s Adrian Covert admired the Palm Pre’s intuitive design and “beautiful” screen. And Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky found switching between applications graceful and simple.

Elsewhere in Vegas, Sony continued blazing the organic light-emitting diode trail showing off a bendable OLED video screen that would make it possible to literally wear what you want to display. Actor Tom Hanks demonstrated a pair of prototype Sony eyeglasses with built-in video screens for watching full-length movies.

Sony Ericsson offered up a clamshell-design music mobile phone for style-conscious consumers and a candy-bar shaped phone boasting Sony’s “Smile Shutter” technology, which is supposed to make taking pictures of people grinning easier.

Motorola lived up to the “green” theme of this year’s CES introducing its W233 “Renew” mobile phone, which it says is made partly from recycled water cooler bottle plastic and by purchasing carbon offsets to counter the energy needed to produce, use and dispose of the phone.

Samsung displayed a semi-transparent active matrix OLED screen and a mobile handset that does double-duty as a video projector.

And flash memory card maker SanDisk rolled out a family of fast solid-state hard drives (SSDs) designed to replace traditional hard drives in notebook PCs.

(Photos: Palm’s Pre phone, Tom Hanks wearing Sony’s movie-watching glasses, Motorola phone made of recycled water cooler bottles/ REUTERS)

What in the world has gotten into Motorola? For more than a year, Wall Street has lamented its fate. Just this week, industry forecasters predicted the handset maker would have nothing to show for the second quarter other than a hefty net loss and a drop to fourth place in the global phone market after losing share to LG Electronics.

So imagine the surprise when Motorola emerged with a small profit, sold nearly 2 million more phones than analysts had expected, and held on to its No. 3 ranking? Company shares jumped 13 percent as it also outlined an expected profit from continuing operations for the full year.

Motorola executives lost no momentum in describing ambitious plans to analysts either, saying they expected to launch 50 new devices this year, many more of them equipped for high-speed wireless networks. They are also looking more closely at the best ways to split the company, with a final separation due in the third quarter next year.

Investors will wonder whether this feisty show means Motorola is back in the game after failing to show the market any cool new phones for many quarters since the Razr was last a status symbol.

“It still has a mountain to climb,” CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber said.

(Reuters)

Keep an eye on:

* Nokia cut prices of many of its phones by as much as 10 percent in late July, according to industry sources. (Reuters)

* CBS cuts full-year profit forecast, plans to sell 50 radio stations. (Reuters)

* Sports agency IMG strikes exclusive 20-year deal with China’s national broadcaster. (WSJ)

* Google mulls venture capital arm (WSJ)

(Photo of model performing at the Motorola Fashion Rock Night Show at a Berlin club/Reuters)