Motorola cuts 3,000 mobile jobs

Motorola says it'll cut 3,000 jobs from its Mobile Devices business in 2009 and around 1,000 more from corporate functions and other business units. These are in addition to job losses announced at the end of last year. It's all part of the company's cost-cutting drive and, together with all the other recent cuts, is estimated to reduce spending in the Mobile Devices business by approximately $1.2 billion this year. [Press release]

New Mobile News podcast now online

This week's Mobile News podcast previews the MOTO W233 Renew, which is made from recycled plastic bottles. Plus, as usual, we'll be taking our regular look at the latest news headlines from the mobile industry. You can download or listen free at TheFonecast.com and on the Mobile News website... and you'll find us on iTunes and via RSS too.

The Mobile News podcast is presented and produced by Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge at TheFonecast.com

New Motorola handset made from recycled water bottles

Motorola has announced the MOTO W233 Renew, which it's describing as the world’s first mobile phone made using plastics comprised of recycled water bottles - and the world's first carbon-neutral mobile phone (thanks to a carbon offsetting deal). The case is recyclable, the box is printed on recycled paper and there's a postage-paid recycling envelope in the box for your old phone (well, there is in the USA, where the Renew will be available on T-Mobile within the next few weeks). [Press release]

UIQ files for bankruptcy

UIQ Technology, which makes software based on the Symbian operating system, has filed for bankruptcy in a Swedish court. The company was originally part of Symbian and is now jointly owned by Motorola and Sony Ericsson. Its future has looked very uncertain since Nokia acquired Symbian and founded the non-profit Symbian Foundation last year. [Source: Telecoms.com]

Motorola AURA goes on sale in UK

Motorola's premium phone, the AURA, went on sale in London's Selfridges department store yesterday. It's the handset we previewed in our podcast at the end of October. Apparently there are only 10 available pre-Christmas. I wonder if they'll sell them all...

Motorola freezes pensions and salaries to cut costs

Motorola is permanently freezing its US pension plans from March 2009 to cut costs, which means existing benefits will be preserved but there'll be no future benefits accrued from that date. It's also said many employees won't receive a salary increase in 2009, with co-CEOs Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha taking a 25% salary cut. [Press release]

Mobile manufacturers agree rating system for chargers

LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have launched an energy rating system for chargers, making it easier for consumers to choose the most energy-saving devices. The new rating system indicates how much energy each charger uses when left plugged into the wall socket after charging is completed. The ratings covers all chargers currently sold by the five companies, range from five stars for the most efficient chargers down to zero stars for those consuming the most energy. Ratings will be shown on each manufacturer's web site. [Nokia press release]

Motorola UK boss leaves

Motorola UK General Manager Jim Michel is reported to have left the company following a restructure. [Source: Mobile News]

Mobile phone market shows effects of global financial crisis

Research company IDC says the global financial crisis is being felt by the mobile phone industry, with sales down significantly in the third quarter of 2008. Their figures show that manufacturers shipped 299 million handsets in Q3 2008, up 3.2% from last year but down 0.4% from the previous quarter. Historically, the third quarter has seen an increase as manufacturers prepare for Christmas. Average selling prices for mobiles have also begun to drop. Nokia leads the list of mobile manufacturers with a 39.4% market share, Samsung is second with 17.3%, Sony Ericsson has moved up to third place with 8.6%, Motorola is fourth with 8.5% and LG is fifth with 7.7%. Strategy Analytics has calculated similar figures; they say 303 million cellphones were shipped worldwide in Q3 2008, up 5% year-on-year, which is the industry’s weakest growth rate since 2002. [IDC press release; Strategy Analytics report]

Motorola ditching Symbian and Linux OS phones

Motorola is going to concentrate on selling phones that use Google's Android operating system, Microsoft Windows Mobile and its own system in a bit to cut costs. Company co-CEO Sanjay Jha said Motorola would be dropping support for Symbian UIQ and the Java-Linux platform. It's also no longer planning to sell its mobile handset business in Q3 2009 but says it'll take longer. As part of the company's reorganisation, two thousand jobs are being cut from its mobile business, with three thousand - 4.5% of its global workforce - going overall. [Sources: WashingtonPost.com; Press release]

This week's Mobile News podcast now online

This week's Mobile News podcast is now available to download. In our main feature, Iain Graham talks to Ben Whitaker from Masabi about mobile payments and mobile tickets. Mark Bridge and James Rosewell join Iain to discuss the latest mobile industry headlines - plus there's a preview of the Motorola Aura. As usual, you can download or listen free at TheFonecast.com and on the Mobile News website... and you'll find us on iTunes and via RSS too.

Nokia N95 is UK's favourite mobile browser

The latest AdMob Mobile Metrics report, which analyses the company's mobile advertising, says the Nokia N95 is the UK's leading handset for web browsing. 9.7% of all the company's UK advertisements were displayed on an N95 in September. Last year's leader, the Sony Ericsson K800i, has slipped to second place. Worldwide, the Motorola RAZR V3 is top (with 4% of traffic), followed by the Nokia N70, the Motorola KRZR K1c, the Apple iPhone and the Motorola W385. [September 2008 pdf report]

25 years of commercial mobile phone use in the USA

Today, 13th October, is the 25th anniversary of the first commercial mobile phone call in the USA. (Well, on a cellular network, anyway). Back in 1983, the president of Ameritech Mobile Communications called the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell in Germany using a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. Incidentally, the first-ever public mobile phone call was made in April 1973... and the UK's first commercial call was in January 1985. [CTIA press release]

Samsung marketing man returns to Motorola

James King, who moved from Motorola to Samsung in July, is returning to Motorola and being appointed as European marketing director. Mr King resigned from Samsung a few days ago due to 'personal circumstances. [Source: MarketingWeek.co.uk]

New head for Motorola's mobile division

Dr Sanjay Jha has been appointed as CEO of Motorola's mobile devices division. He'll also be co-CEO of Motorola with Greg Brown, who's been running the company since December last year. Mr Jha was Chief Operating Officer at Qualcomm until his move. [Press release]

Motorola announces profit

Motorola's second-quarter results show that the company has made a profit of $4 million and is maintaining its market share with sales of over 28 million handsets. [Press release]

New podcast from Mobile News now online

The new Mobile News podcast - sponsored by Supercover Insurance - takes an in-depth look at industry headlines from the last seven days, including potential changes to text charges when using your mobile abroad. In addition, there's a preview of the Motorola ROKR E8. The broadcast can be downloaded from TheFonecast.com, from the Mobile News website, via iTunes or from our RSS feed.

New Mobile News podcast now online

This week's Mobile News podcast is now available to download. The regular team of Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge takes a look at the latest industry news - from termination charges to takeovers - and there's also a preview of the Motorola ZINE ZN5 camera phone. The broadcast can be downloaded from TheFonecast.com, from the Mobile News website, via iTunes or from our RSS feed.

Europeans want femtocells... once they understand them

40% of Europeans would be interested in buying a femtocell in 2009 to improve mobile coverage at home, according to a survey conducted by ABI Research for Motorola. Over three-quarters of respondents didn't know what femtocells were but many became interested once the technology was explained. The highest response was from Poland, where 67% of respondents said they would definitely or probably buy a femtocell within the next 12 months. The response in the UK was 34%. [Sources: Telecoms.com; silicon.com]

Motorola launches film service

Motorola has launched a download service that lets UK customers download full-length films to watch on their mobile phones. The deal, which offers titles from Paramount Digital Entertainment, will cost between £5.99 and £8.99 per movie. 40 films are currently available to download to your PC and then transfer to your mobile phone. [Sources: Guardian.co.uk; Pocket-Lint.co.uk]