Motorola Missteps

• Email
• Share
• Print

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) investors are groaning again on news that two key mobile phone models with cameras that were meant to launch by the holidays are going to miss the crucial deadline. Nearly a third of mobile phone sales take place in the fourth quarter, and despite promising to make deadlines after missing them in years past, Motorola is at it again.

The country's largest wireless carrier, Verizon (NYSE: VZ), will not receive the new Motorola phone models -- called E310 and V810 -- in time for testing or in time to plan a marketing campaign before the holidays, The Wall Street Journal reports. Both phones have flip-up color screens and one, with a camera and flash, was meant to be Motorola's flagship model for the season.

A Motorola spokesperson said that anytime you design a new product with new technology, you're likely to have setbacks, but there's no excuse for a $28 billion company to miss such a crucial selling period, especially when it knew, of course, that the deadline was fast approaching. As recently as late July, Motorola expected to deliver these phones by the fourth quarter, perhaps even the third.

AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE), BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) and SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC) may also face delays in their planned sales of Motorola camera phones by December.

This misstep at Motorola follows a string of setbacks that stretches back years now, making it no surprise that Nokia (NYSE: NOK), followed by Samsung Electronics, commands a strong lead in the wireless phone market to Motorola's third place. Last week, chairman and CEO Christopher Galvin decided to retire after disagreements with a board of directors tired of waiting for a turnaround.

So, not only is Motorola approaching the holidays without two key camera phone models, it lacks a leader as well. Because income has wilted, the deflated stock still trades at 50 times trailing earnings and 32 times forward estimates -- estimates that now must be called into question.