Lenovo this evening has reported its calendar Q4 2014 earnings, and as is well-known, Motorola is now a part of the company, so the earnings are bit more interesting this time around. According to the earnings release, Motorola Mobility sold 10 million smartphones last quarter, which is up 118 percent compared to the year ago quarter.
IDC is out today with its numbers on tablet shipments for Q4 2014 showing Apple & Samsung remained on top of the market both last quarter and throughout 2014 despite a slight drop in overall market share.
Apple sold 21.4 million iPads during the holiday quarter last year, which gave the company around 28% market share compared to 33% with 26 million units sold during the same quarter last year. Apple beats out number two Samsung, according to IDC, which grabbed 14.5% of the market in Q4 with 11 million units shipped. Samsung also dipped in overall market share from 17.2% with 13.5 million units shipped in the year ago quarter.
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At CES 2015, Lenovo has unveiled a handful of new Android-powered devices, including both phones and tablets. First off, the company has announced the Vibe X2 Pro (seen above, left), which is an updated version of the Vibe X2 we saw back at IFA. The X2 Pro features a 5.3-inch 1080p display and is powered by a 64-bit 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor. There are also two 13MP cameras on the device, one on the front and one on the back. The Vibe X2 Pro launches in April outside the U.S. and is powered by Android 4.4 with Lenovo’s custom skin on top.
Many Samsung employees are expected to lose their jobs in the next week or two as the company is set to announce its annual personnel changes early next month. The company recently reported a 74% drop in mobile profits and is planning to produce 30% fewer smartphone models next year in the face of increasing competition from Chinese brands Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei.
Dramatically slowing sales of its flagship handset led the company to shore up its share price with a $2B stock buyback …
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While Google confirmed the $2.9B sale of Motorola way back in January, it is only today that the last piece of paperwork was signed and the formerly American-owned Motorola officially became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese electronics manufacturer Lenovo.
Announcing the completion of the acquisition on the Motorola blog, the company said that its headquarters would remain in Chicago, along with its offices in Silicon Valley …
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Almost a year ago, Lenovo announced that Ashton Kutcher was one of its newest product engineers. At first, the move felt like another bogus celebrity title with a major company (remember when BlackBerry named Alicia Keys its creative director?), but the Dude, Where’s My Car? star actually has some tech cred. Invested in a large number of successful startups, Kutcher also studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa.
Chinese company Lenovo, which is in the process of buying the Motorola brand from Google, has reported a 23 percent year-on-year increase in first-quarter profits to $214M, reports Reuters. The company also said that worldwide phone sales were up 39 percent, in line with recent IDC numbers.
While Lenovo recently became the market leader within China, CEO Yang Yuanqing said that the company will in future be focusing on more profitable overseas markets …
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As Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola nears closing, today Motorola shared some updates on changes to its leadership. Announced in its press release is a promotion for Charlie Tritschler to Senior Vice Present of Product Management overseeing product development on all the company’s products. Tritschler joined Motorola in March of 2013 from Amazon’s Kindle team. Motorola notes that “Charlie has been one of the leading forces behind Moto G and Moto E.”
The company also announced it’s adding regional sales heads as three new members of its senior leadership team and also making Adrienne Hayes the SVP of Marketing and Communications of a new marketing and communications team responsible for the company’s brand and advertising worldwide.
These changes ensure that our leadership team accurately reflects our priorities and organization structure, and put us in the best possible position to continue growing our success. Congratulations to all the leaders in new roles, and my thanks to everyone who helped bring us this far.
Missing from Motorola’s new executives page is Bill Morgan who was previously the company’s Senior Vice President of Marketing overseeing the brand, advertising, and communications role that now seems to be filled by Adrienne.
A report earlier this week claimed Google and Motorola are beginning work on a 5.9-inch Nexus device codenamed Shamu as Motorola transitions to its new home at Lenovo.
Following releasing its second quarter data for tablet shipments worldwide, IDC today released its Q2 2014 report for smartphone shipments during the three month period that ended in June. The numbers line up with Apple’s fiscal Q3 earnings call that took place earlier this month where the company reported iPhone sales of 35.1 million units for the quarter. With 295.3 million units shipped total during Q2, IDC notes that both Samsung and Apple lost share to the smaller Chinese manufacturers:
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Over the weekend, a report was published claiming that Google and Motorola were working together on a 5.9-inch Nexus device codenamed the Shamu. This afternoon, The Information published a separate report corroborating this weekend’s source.
Lenovo’s $2.91 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility from Google is still pending regulatory approval, however it looks like the company is already mapping out a new strategy. Despite being one of the world’s largest PC makers, Lenovo is halting the development of Windows tablets under 10 inches in size and migrating its remaining inventory to markets like Brazil, China and Japan where there’s more of a need for low-cost slates.
Reuters reports that almost 200 Samsung managers have “voluntarily” handed back a quarter of their first-half bonuses in anticipation of what is expected to be the company’s worst quarterly profit for two years.
The decision to return some of the bonus was partly a gesture to demonstrate that managers are taking responsibility for the earnings decline, and partly a way to show that management will work harder, the source told Reuters on Friday, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Photo: ibtimes.com
After warning earlier this month that Q2 didn’t “look too good,” Samsung today released its earnings preview for the second quarter of 2014. The South Korean company reported an operating profit of $7.1 billion (7.2 trillion won), missing analyst estimates of $8 billion (8.1 trillion won). This comes out to a 24 percent drop year over year (via Bloomberg).
Although Motorola has yet to formally announce the Moto X+1, we’ve seen our share of alleged photos and videos of this phantom smartphone. Today, however, we’re getting the clearest shot to date of the rumored handset, courtesy of @evleaks. Unlike previous sketchy images, this front and back pair of photos appear to be press renders of the Moto X successor dressed up in some type of case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZgHGDGCBfc
Update: The Moto Stream is now live on Motorola’s website. It costs $49, uses Bluetooth and NFC technology to connect to devices, charges over USB, and has a 3.5mm to RCA connector for audio. Motorola also provides a bit more insight into this “DJ experience” it hinted at by describing a software feature called Heist Mode:
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Motorola Mobility, still owned by Google until the sale to Lenovo completes, announced today that it’s closing the Texas-based manufacturing plant that it opened in May of last year to build its Moto X smartphone. The plant, which employees approximately 700 employees, is said to be closing its doors by the end of the year, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal:
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In addition to the new ChromeOS and Intel-based ChromeBook announcements this morning, Intel announced an important new manufacturing initiative for its computer microprocessors. The company announced via a video that it will be moving production of its processors to completely lack conflict materials. These new chips, including the more efficient Bay Trail, will be conflict free in the new ChromeBooks. Intel’s video explicitly mentions materials such as gold, tungsten, and tin coming from war zones in the Congo. The video says that Intel is choosing to completely revamp its processor manufacturing operations and to assist these zones rather than abandoning them and moving to already conflict-free zones for sourcing materials.
The profile of Chromebooks is likely to get a boost after the world’s largest PC manufacturer, Lenovo, announced its first Chromebooks aimed at the consumer market. Pricing starts at $279.
Lenovo, best known for its Windows laptops, launched its first Chromebook in January – but that one was pitched at the education market, selling in bulk to schools and colleges. This is the first time it has pitched a Chromebook directly at consumers – something which may worry Microsoft. Lenovo has 18.6 percent of the PC market, ahead of HP, Dell and Acer …
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Back on Cyber Monday, Motorola cut the price of its flagship Moto X to just $350, causing a frenzy all across the web and even prompting the company to offer it again just a month later and several times since. As noticed by Android Police, Motorola has dropped the price of the RepublicWireless Moto X to just $349, yet again.
Motorola hasn’t made any official announcements regarding the price drop, but if you head over to the company’s website you can see that the price has dropped with no indication of it being a temporary sale.
On Amazon, the device is also priced the same, but it applies to the unlocked GSM model that will work with AT&T and T-Mobile, not RepublicWireless. That’s even a better deal: $350 for 16GB and $400 for 32GB. The developer edition of the device is still set at its normal $449.99 and it’s unclear if it will receive a price cut.
Nevertheless, if you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to snag Motorola’s darn-good Moto X flagship, now’s your chance.
History has taught us that manufacturers typically don’t discuss hardware sales and shipments publicly, but some firms will occasionally issue press releases sharing statistics when boasting about success. However, the folks at Motorola Mobility have taken a much more casual approach to outlining its figures. Today, the soon to be Lenovo-owned company tweeted that it shipped 6.5 million devices globally during Q1 of 2014.
It would be surprising if Google didn’t unveil a new Nexus device before the end of the year. Currently, the Nexus 10 is still out of stock and Google’s Nexus 5 is beginning to show its age. If anything, we hope to see a Nexus 6 in the near future, but Google might be working on a frugal Nexus smartphone as well.
According to Chinese site MTKSJ.com (via GforGames), Google may be working with chip maker MediaTek on a budget Nexus device that could be priced as low as $100. This could really shake things up in the mobile market and would be a direct competitor to ex-Google company Motorola and its Moto G smartphone. The Nexus line is already known for its low-priced devices with high-end specifications, but a $100 Nexus device could definitely broaden Google’s mobile market share.
After announcing its acquisition of Motorola late last month, Lenovo is ending the month with another big bit of news. According to a new report from Re/Code, Lenovo has inked a deal with Ashton Kutcher, star of “Jobs” and “Two and a Half Men”, to release a line of smartphones later this year.
In an interview with the publication, Lenovo Chief Marketing Officer David Roman noted that while the deal does sound kind of odd at first, Kutcher is an engineer and fits the role very well.
“I know on one level, it sounds corny, but it is real. He not only sees himself as an engineer, but he is an engineer. If he sees a problem, he wants to solve it.”
Lenovo and Kutcher have been working together since October, with the actor taking on the role of developing and promoting the company’s Yoga line of devices. Kutcher won’t have much of a say in terms of the design of the phone, but look and feel of the software experience will very much be his.
Kutcher studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa, so he certainly is qualified. Although, he did drop-out to pursue a modeling career before graduating. He’s invested in numerous technology start-ups, however, including FourSquare and Uber.
During a panel discuss during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, Motorola senior vice president Rick Osterloh revealed the hardware company is working on a smartwatch with plans to ship later this year, CNET reports.
Osterloh didn’t reveal much more in terms of specifics about what Motorola’s offering will present, but did hint that its smartwatch would consider fashion in its presentation:
“Right now, there are non wearable products you actually want to wear, and it’s because they’re all extremely ugly,” Osterloh said at an event at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday.
Google, which recently announced a deal to unpack Motorola onto Lenovo in a multibillion dollar deal, is also reportedly working on its own smartwatch offering through a partnership with LG.
While Motorola offered no specifics on when to expect its smartwatch aside from later this year according to CNET, Google is expected to reveal its smartwatch next month before it’s launch in June at Google I/O.
Last night, it was reported that Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside would be stepping down from his position to become the chief operating officer at cloud storage company Dropbox. Woodside has now confirmed this decision in a blog post on the Official Motorola Blog, saying that he will step down as CEO at the end of March.
Woodside goes on to announce that Jonathan Rosenberg, who was the SVP of Products at Google from 2002 until 2011, will step in as COO at Motorola Mobility on April 1st. Rosenberg worked closely with Woodside and was “intimately involved” with decisions at Motorola. Google Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora will remain Executive Chairman of the Motorola Operating Board and continue to oversee strategy at the company. It looks as if Motorola will be going without a CEO after Woodside leaves, leaving Lenovo with a lot of control.
Woodside says he is leaving Motorola Mobility “in great hands” and that he is immensely proud of what the company has accomplished in the past 18 months. He also notes that he is excited for the next chapter for the company under Lenovo, who purchased it for $3 billion last month.
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston has also issued a statement on the news.
“We’ve long admired Dennis’s leadership at Google and Motorola where he ran multi-billion dollar businesses and built amazing organizations around the world. We’re so happy to welcome Dennis to our team — I can’t imagine a better person to help us bring Dropbox to global scale.”
Read the full resignation letter after the jump:
