Motorola posts loss despite shipping 4m smartphones and 440K Xoom tablets

Motorola Mobility posted a loss of £56m in the second quarter, despite shipping 11 million devices and generating $3.3bn in net revenue.

The mobile devices side of the business managed to generate $2.4bn in net revenue alone, in a tough market increasingly dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Motorola shipped 4.4 million smartphones and, although it was the first to market with an Android Honeycomb tablet, its Xoom device shipped a modest 440,000 units in the quarter.

In comparison, Apple sold 20.3 million iPhones and 9.25 million iPads, and RIM, despite posting a loss, shifted 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones and 500,000 PlayBook tablets.

However, Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive of Motorola Mobility, expects the situation to pick up in the third quarter.

"With a focus on profitable growth and delivering differentiated LTE smartphones and tablets, we expect to achieve profitability in mobile devices in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2011," he said.

Meanwhile, Samsung posted operating profits of 3.75 trillion won ($3.6bn) as its mobile division continues to blossom on the back of the Galaxy smartphone and tablet range.

The mobile division generated sales of 11.69 trillion won ($11bn), an increase of 45 per cent year on year. Samsung has not provided concrete sales figures, but the Galaxy S II, which was launched in April, is thought to have sold five million units.

Meanwhile, Samsung's semiconductor business took a hit, profits dropping by 11 per cent to 1.79 trillion won ($1.7bn)

Nokia remains the top mobile phone vendor, despite losing 20 per cent of its market share in 12 months, according to the latest figures from IDC.

Samsung remains in second place, followed by LG, Apple and ZTE.