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[AFP] Motorola, the largest US mobile phone maker, rebounded from three straight quarters of losses and posted a small quarterly net profit on Thursday.

The Schaumburg, Illinois-based company reported a net profit of 26 million dollars in the second quarter of the year compared with a net profit of four million dollars a year ago.

Motorola posted a net loss of 231 million dollars in the first quarter.

Earnings per share of one cent in the second quarter were better than expected by analysts who had forecast a loss of four cents per share.

Revenue during the quarter which ended on July 4 fell 32 percent to 5.49 billion dollars.

Motorola’s mobile phone division cut its operating loss in half compared with the first quarter. It rang up a second-quarter operating loss of 253 million dollars on revenue which fell 45 percent to 1.8 billion dollars.

“In Mobile Devices, we improved the operating loss, reflecting a lower cost structure, and substantially reduced cash consumption as compared to the first quarter,” Motorola co-chief executive Sanjay Jha said in a statement.

“We have agreements in place with carriers and remain on track to bring our new smartphone devices to market for the holiday selling season,” said Jha, who is also CEO of the Mobile Devices division.

Motorola said it shipped 14.8 million handsets in the quarter, a slight increase from 14.7 million the first quarter, giving it an estimated global handset market share of 5.5 percent

Motorola said it expects to again post earnings per share of one cent in the current quarter.

Motorola enjoyed success with its popular Razr phone launched in 2005 but has been losing ground since to Apple and Research in Motion as well as other major cell phone makers such as Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Motorola enjoyed a 17.5 percent share of the handset market two years ago.

Motorola has said it hopes to have devices based on Google’s open-source Android operating systems in stores by the fourth quarter of the year.

Motorola shares gained 9.68 percent to 7.48 dollars in early trading on Wall Street.

Motorola rebounds, posts profit

[pew] An April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows that 56% of adult Americans have accessed the internet by wireless means, such as using a laptop, mobile device, game console, or MP3 player. The most prevalent way people get online using a wireless network is with a laptop computer; 39% of adults have done this.

The report also finds rising levels of Americans using the internet on a mobile handset. One-third of Americans (32%) have used a cell phone or Smartphone to access the internet for emailing, instant-messaging, or information-seeking. This level of mobile internet is up by one-third since December 2007, when 24% of Americans had ever used the internet on a mobile device. On the typical day, nearly one-fifth (19%) of Americans use the internet on a mobile device, up substantially from the 11% level recorded in December 2007. That’s a growth of 73% in the 16 month interval between surveys.

“Mobile access strengthens the three pillars of online engagement: connecting with others, satisfying information queries, and sharing content with others,” said John B. Horrigan, Associate Director of the Pew Internet Project and principal author of the report. “With access in their pockets, many Americans are ‘on the fly’ consumers and producers of digital information.”

The report, entitled “Wireless Internet Use,” also found that African Americans are the most active users of the mobile internet. Nearly half (48%) of African Americans have at one time used the internet on a mobile device, and on the average day 29% go online with a handheld – both figures are half again the national average. Moreover, the growth in mobile handheld online use on the average day since 2007 for African Americans is twice the national average – 141% for African Americans versus the 73% average.

“The notion of a digital divide for African Americans has some resonance when thinking about the wireline internet,” said Horrigan. “But when you introduce the mobile internet, the picture changes and African Americans are the pace setters.”

The report also found a growth in a broader measure of mobile engagement, as more Americans in 2009 were turning to their handheld for non-voice data activities. The activities probed were: sending or receiving text messages, taking a picture, playing a game, checking email, accessing the internet, recording video, instant messaging, playing music, getting maps or directions, or watching video.

In 2009, 69% of all adult Americans said they had ever done at least one of the ten activities versus 58% who did this in late 2007.

In 2009, 44% of all adult Americans said they had done at least one of the non-voice data activities on the typical day, up from 32% in 2007.

When asked to assess what mobile access means when they are away from home or work, about half of wireless users cite staying in touch with others or being able to dig for information on the go. However, some say such access lets them share content with others as they go about their daily lives. Specifically, among cell phone or wireless laptop users:

Half (50%) say it is very important to them to have mobile access in order to stay in touch with other people.

Nearly the same share (46%) says they mobile access is very important for getting online information on the go.

One in six (17%) say mobile access is very important to them so they can share or post online content while away from home or work.

Wireless internet access using other devices, though much less common than with laptops or handhelds, has a foothold among some Americans. The April 2009 survey found that:

45% of adults have iPods or MP3 players and 5% of all adults have used such a device to go online.
41% of adults have game consoles and 9% of adults have used it to access the internet.
14% of adults have a personal digital assistant, and 7% of adults have used it for online access.
2% of adults have an e-book (i.e., a Kindle or Sony reader) and 1% of adults have used it to get online.
Overall, 17% of adults have used at least one of the four access means listed above to go online.

The Pew Internet Project’s April 2009 survey interviewed 2,253 Americans, with 561 interviewed on their cell phones. The overall sample has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. Some 1,687 respondents in the sample were internet users and the margin of error in that cohort is plus or minus three percentage points and 1,818 respondents were cell phone users and the margin of error for that group is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Press-Releases/2009/Mobile-internet-use.aspx”>Mobile internet use increases sharply in 2009 as more than half of all Americans have gotten online by some wireless means

[cnet] Nokia has strongly denied working on an Android-based handset, following a report early on Monday that it’s planning to do so.

The report, carried in The Guardian, took a cue from “industry insiders” to predict the launch of a touch-screen Android device at Nokia World in September. When contacted by ZDNet UK later Monday morning, a Nokia representative issued an “outright denial” of the piece.

“There is no truth to this story whatsoever,” a statement from the company read. “It is a well-known fact that Symbian is our platform of choice for smartphones.”

Going for Android would certainly have been a surprising move for Nokia, given the time and money it has put into opening up Symbian. Nokia’s operating system (since it bought out Symbian’s other stakeholders last year) is likely to reappear in its new, open-source guise next year.

Nokia also has another open-source mobile platform in Maemo, which it is actively promoting as part of its Intel partnership.

Meanwhile, fairly realistic-looking images have been leaked of Sony Ericsson’s Android phone, currently code-named “Rachael.” The device appears to be part of SE’s high-end Xperia line and is said to run on Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

Nokia Android rumors earn outright denial

[t3] The BBC has updated its list of iPlayer-compatible handsets today, boasting 13 models that are capable of streaming over WiFi.

All 13 handsets can also stream over a 3G connection if you’re a customer with 3 or Vodafone, except for the Apple iPhone. The iPhone can however listen to Listen Again, the radio service – a feat that the Samsung Omnia and Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 can’t perform.

The full list of mobile phones that can stream BBC iPlayer over WiFi include the iPhone, Nokia N85, Nokia 5800, Nokia E71, Nokia N95, Nokia N96, Samsung Omnia, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, Sony Ericsson W705, Sony Ericsson W715, Sony Ericsson C905, Sony Ericsson W995 and the HTC Touch HD.

Just five of the devices allow users to download TV over WiFi, the Nokia N85, 5800, E71, N96 and the Sony Ericsson W995. Once downloaded, you can then watch the TV show in the next 7 days before the nasty DRM bug catches up to you and it expires.

iPlayer now available on 13 mobile phones

[eetimes] With developed markets saturated and shifting mostly high-end handsets, and mid–tier phone providers continuing to struggle, market tracker Juniper Research suggests low-cost devices sold to the emerging markets will be the only ray of hope in the short term.

Juniper is forecasting that, for the next five years to 2014, annual sales of low cost mobile handsets will rise by 22 per cent to over 700 million.

The research house note that efforts by industry players to lower the TCO (total cost of ownership) for devices and services to the sub $5 mark are already reaping the benefits in markets such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and India.

However, Juniper suggests it will be the Africa and Middle East region that will account for the largest annual shipment volumes by 2014, with 166 million low cost handsets predicted to be sold, representing 24 per cent of all sales that year and up by 54 per cent since 2009.

“With around 80 per cent of new mobile users set to come from emerging markets over the next six years, it is essential that operators and vendors work together to dilute the price barriers associated with mobile technology and to provide ongoing support through the development of specific social and personal services, such as Nokia’s Life Tools suite,” said Juniper analyst Andrew Kitson.

But the analyst cautions that commercial success will only be achieved if operators in these emerging markets adopt “revolutionary new business models and if governments can be persuaded not to place excessive taxes and duties on device sales and imports.”

And with the rapid growth of the smartphone sector, Juniper is predicting that these devices, such as the beefed-up iPhone 3G S and Palm Pre launched this week will account for 27 per cent of mobile device shipments in 2014, up from 13 per cent in 2008.

The result, according to Kitson, is that the market is effectively polarizing into two groupings – entry level and high end devices – with the mid range market, mainly played in by Motorola and Sony Ericsson being squeezed.

Low-cost phones, emerging markets to drive handsets sector