Motorola lays off 77 workers and stops mobile development

Motorola is in a bad shape. One of the leading mobile phone producers had been badly hit by the economic recession. In order to cut cost, the company has decided to lay off its 77 employees at its Plantation facility. Earlier on January 15, 2009, the company announced to lay off 4000 workers in North America. The new declaration will become affective from March 27, 2009.

South Florida Business Journal reports:

In its notice to the state, Motorola said those employees affected by the layoffs will not have the right to bump or displace other employees. However, they can apply for open positions and will be provided with severance.

A company spokesperson did not return calls for comment.

In terms of business, 2008 was a bad year for Motorola. For the last couple of years, the company enjoyed the top third spot in terms of mobile phone sales. In 2008, it slipped down to 4^th position with sales of 99.9 million mobile phones. Due to job loss and financial crisis, consumers have decreased buying new phones. Moreover, the company failed to bring in good quality products which caused its downfall last year.

New iPhone will take away major South Korean market share from LG and Samsung

No matter how they label their new products, ‘iPhone hunters,’ ‘iPhone killers,’ Samsung Electronics Corporation (SEO: 005935)and LG, two of the largest mobile phone producing companies of South Korea will face tough competition from the new Apple iPhone 3G.

According to the data of Strategy Analytics, till now, LG enjoyed a sales growth four times higher than the industry average in South Korea and Samsung two times. Now, after the release of new iPhone model at a low subsidized price could take away major market share of LG and Samsung in South Korea.

Yankee Group analyst, John Jackson, said that you would not need an analyst to tell you that a low subsidized price for the most-anticipated gadget ever was going to move huge amounts of iPhones in finite number of channels through which they would sell. It would hurt the Korean producers in key high-end segments.

Not only Samsung and LG but other major mobile phone companies like Motorola (NYSE:MOT) and Sony Ericsson are also expected to face a tough competition against the new iPhone. The latest model Apple iPhone 3G offers phone, iPod media player, web browser and faster internet access on advanced wireless networks. The Apple iPhone 3G will cost $199. From Jully 11, it would hit the market. According to Jae Lee, Daiwa Securities analyst, now it would be the best time for Korean makers to trim the fat from their cell-phone prices or else, they would not stand a chance in front of the iPhone.

Related article:
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Motorola RAZR2 V9 is coming to Asia

Whenever I think of Motorola, the first thing that comes to my mind is the popular Motorola ad where the guy and girl fight in the tube station throwing Motorola sets at each other. It is one of my most favorite ads and truly upholds Motorola’s spirit; slim, sleek, and stylish. Motorola Inc. and Ferrari jointly released Moto Z8. Motorola RAZR2 V9 is the second addition in this series. Both Z8 and V9 have been introduced with limited editions. The Motorola Razr2 V9 will be available in South American and Asian markets. Now, let’s take a look at the phone.

Dimension:

• Length: 4 inches.
• Breadth: 2 inches.
• Width: .5 inches.
• Weight: 125g.

Exterior:

• Motorola Razr2 V9 comes with a frame made of stainless steel and hardened glass.
• The composing materials of Motorola Razr2 V9 include vacuum metal finishes and two-tone soft touch housing.
• You will find volume key and smart key on the left spine. The camera key is on the right spine. A smart key is used to lock/unlock the side keys. The side keys also provide vibrating feedback.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 has a big external screen. Diagonally, it is 2” long. Because of the glossy surface, you can not see the screen under bright sunlight. On standby mode, the screen displays date, time, signal, and battery strength and background wallpaper. It also serves as camera viewfinder for self-portraits. In case of incoming calls, it displays caller ID.

Standard features:

• Motorola Razr2 V9 comes with 45 MB memory which can be extended upto 2 GB with an optional micro secure digital card.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 has micro USB with mass storage.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 has integrated USB2.0.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 has MMS, SMS and MotoSync for message sending.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 has independent voice recognition system.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 has skinny side buttons and flat keyboard which is the major weak point of this set.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 comes with a 1000 entry phone book. Each entry contains six number slots and two email slots.
• You can group the callers and pair them with their photos.
• Along with ringtones the phones vibrating alert system.
• Other features include calculator, alarm clock and world clock.
• The battery life of Motorola Razr2 V9 is 3.6 hours talk time and 12 days standby time.

Sound quality:
Motorola Razr2 V9 comes with Crystal Talk TM technology, which automatically adjusts the sound for background noise and adjusts the audio. You can talk and be heard in a crowd.

Audio:

• Motorola Razr2 V9 offers an internal antenna along with touch sensitive external music keys. You do not have to open the phone to listen to music.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 has audio streaming, capturing and playback capacity.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 has integrated digital music player. It supports a wide range of audio formats.

Video/Display:

• Motorola Razr2 V9 comes with a 240 x 320 QVGA 262K color display. It has twice the resolution of the original Razr.
• The internal screen of Motorola Razr2 V9 is 2.2” long diagonally.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 has a two mega pixel integrated camera with 8xdigital zoom.
• The Motorola Razr2 V9 has video streaming, capturing and playback capacity.
• See What I see: You can share your video footage. You can also stream live video footage to another person while a call is in progress.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 also has video telephony.
• Other following features include:
• Self-timer.
• A free-memory space indicator.
• Five shutter sounds with a silent option.
• Six lighting options.
• Seven color styles.
• Five exposure settings.
• Night mode for better lowlight shots.
• Built-in camcorder with three video quality settings.
• Two video lengths, one for multimedia messages and the other for as much memory is available.

Internet:

• Motorola Razr2 V9 supports EDGE and GPRS class 10&12.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 supports Bluetooth 2.0 wireless technology.
• You can send emails.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 comes with 3G High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA).
• Motorola Razr2 V9 has 3.6 Mbps wireless broadband connection.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 comes with stereo Bluetooth wireless technology that supports A2DP and AVRCP profiles.
• Motorola Razr2 V9 is one of the fastest GSM Razrs. It is able to support download speeds of up to 1.8Mbps.

Price: $199.99 - $559.99.

For more detail information visit the following links:

http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/motorola-razr2-v9-at/4507-6454_7-32452794.html

http://www.motorola.com/mot/doc/6/6815_MotDoc.pdf

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