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Motorola sales doubled year on year, more than 10 million phones sold in Q4

Lenovo announced results for the first quarter with Motorola in the house, and everything seems to be going according to plan so far.
By
February 3, 2015
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Lenovo announced results for the first quarter with Motorola in the house, and everything seems to be going according to plan so far.

Lenovo completed the acquisition of Motorola from Google on October 30, following the announcement of the $2.9 billion deal in January 2014.

Lenovo's plan to make Motorola profitable within six quarters is on track.

In the quarter that ended December, Motorola sold more than 10 million smartphones, a 118 percent increase over the same period last year. Motorola revenue was $1.9 billion, out of the total of $3.4 billion generated by Lenovo’s mobile unit, which includes Lenovo-branded smartphone, tablets, and TVs. However, the mobile unit ended in the red, with a loss of $89 million for the quarter.

According to IDC research, thanks to Motorola and its own brand devices, Lenovo grabbed 6.6 percent of the global smartphone market, behind only Samsung and Apple. That’s a 78 percent increase year on year.

Lenovo said that its plan to make Motorola profitable within six quarters is on track.

Lenovo highlighted its global reach (67 countries and counting) and slipped in a jab at Chinese mobile rivals (read Xiaomi) that make the bulk of their profits in China. That’s opposed to Lenovo, which sold 60 percent of its phones outside of China.

Overall, Lenovo beat analyst margins by a long shot, with net profit of $253 million, compared to the $184.6 million consensus of analysts consulted by Bloomberg. The Chinese giant even increased its PC sales by 5 percent, which is quite a performance given the general weakness of the market.

Lenovo is just getting started with Motorola, and it will be interesting to see what the future holds for the venerable phone maker. Motorola cost Google hundreds of millions each quarter, but Lenovo is confident it can turn it around relatively quickly. Lenovo just re-introduced the Motorola brand in China, while in the fast-growing Indian market, Motorola is already thriving, having sold three million units in 2014.