Motorola: Wall Street Unexcited By New Phone Offerings

The Street’s early read on yesterday's introduction of a flurry of new phones from Motorola (MOT) was a decided lack of excitement.

Motorola’s new models include the RAZR 2, a follow-up to its popular but aging RAZR line; the Q9, a QWERTY smartphone that will compete against the Samsung Blackjack and and the Research in Motion (RIMM) Blackberry Pearl; the ROKR Z6, a slider phone with a music focus; and the Z8, a multi-media focused slider-style phone which the company calls its “Media Monster.” That’s the phone CEO Ed Zander hinted about last week, coming equipped with an ability to show 30 frames per second video; it will also be able to download video content from BSkyB.

The Q9 ships in Italy this week, with other markets to follow. The RAZR 2 launches in July; but you can pre-order it now. The Z8, which will come with a copy of the movie The Bourne Identity, ships in Europe and Asia in June; no word yet on U.S. availability.

Albert Lin, an analyst at American Technology Research, writes in a research note that the RAZR 2 “could be the successor to the RAZR that MOT so desperately needs.” He also says that “it does not appear to be reasonable for these new phones to lift the bottom-line this year,” but that the potential for 2008 “is much better.”

Lin notes that according to his colleague Mark McKechnie, who attended the unveiling of the new phones in New York, Motorola CFO Tom Meredith said at the event that the next two quarters will be tough, and that there will not be any impact on results from the new phones until at least the September quarter and more likely the December quarter. According to the note, McKechnie concluded that the comments from the CFO boiled down to “a simple re-iteration of the quarterly EPS conference call outlook,” but that it might “take the excitement our of all the new phones being shown.”

Motorola was down yesterday 35 cents at $17.81.

MOT 1-yr chart:

Comments

[carleast]

Talk about playing the same old tune. The Razr 2 looks exactly the same as the original. So are we expected to like it because it's "retro" now lol?

Although, the RIZR Z8 seems to be very interesting. I really like the new way of sliding it and if the demo simulated videos of what the screen is going to be like is anything like the real thing then this could be a winner. Although why provide that screen and then only a 2 mp camera? Some comments elsewhere on the net suggest that it doesn't feel well built though.

[Tom B]

It looks pretty unimpressive. Why are they even bothering? Have they no corporate pride?

[charanischiu]

I have been waiting for the new model A1010 which have functions like touch pad, GPS, PDA, 3G but it never come out. Just show in picture.

I am still using the A925, Razer is not impressive.