Posted Feb 05, 2007 at 05:01AM by Remi M. Listed in: Cellular News Tags: Razr, Motorola, Blockbuster, Carl C. Icahn
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Motorola phones - Image 1How many people in your social circle is using a Motorola Razr? A lot? Well, that seems to be the reason why Motorola is experiencing some bumps in the financial world lately as reported by the New York Times.

The company has been the victim of collapsing profits and stocks, and they recently announced that they'll be laying off 3,500 of its workers, all of these in spite of the Razr's thriving sales. So what's happening in the Motorola camp?

Apparently, there are a billion mobile phones sold worldwide every year and Motorola has almost a quarter of the market. The problem in this scenario is that consumers are also replacing their phones faster. When it first came out, the Motorola Razr quickly became the toast of the town - with almost everybody sporting the thingamajig and a lot raving for it. But now that it's yesterday's technology, people are switching to other phones, and there lies the problem.

Keeping at tune with the times, Motorola came up with new phones, the Pebl, Slvr, Rizr, and Rckr. The company then discounted its older phones in the hopes of raking in more profits. The problem now is that the discounts were too aggressive and the new phones are not doing that good in the market.

Analysts are now saying that Motorola needs to find a blockbuster. They also mentioned that they should reboot its product line and leave behind the four-letter names and Razr-inspired design flourishes. Basically, for Motorola to be the hottest company again, they should recreate the Razr phenom but with something that is entirely different. They should do this now since a lot of other companies like Samsung and Apple are itching to deliver their mobile phone hits.

Billionaire investor, Carl C. Icahn, bought 40 million shares of Motorola on a bet that he could push the company to do better. Due to this, Motorola officials refused to say anything about the NY Times report citing legal restrictions on how it can respond to Mr. Icahn's activities.

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