NEW YORK, USA: Motorola Inc on Thursday forecast a higher-than-expected profit for the current quarter, when it will start selling two new Google Android phones in hopes of regaining ground lost to iPhone.

Motorola, whose shares rose nearly 8 per cent, also deepened its 2009 cost cutting plan by $100 million to $1.9 billion.

After surprising Wall Street with a third-quarter profit, Motorola forecast a fourth-quarter earnings per share range with a midpoint 2 cents above Wall Street estimates.

"In the third quarter the upside is primarily driven by their enterprise business and continued cost rationalization in the mobile devices business," said Avian Securities analyst Matthew Thornton said.

Motorola posted a third-quarter profit of $12 million, or 1 cent per share, compared with a loss of $397 million, or 18 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, it would have posted a profit of 2 cents per share, compared with the average analyst expectation for the company to break even, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 27 per cent to $5.45 billion, compared with Wall Street estimates of $5.54 billion.

The company, which has been losing ground in the cellphone market for more than two years, shipped 13.6 million handsets in the quarter, compared with 25.4 million in the same quarter the year before.

While this was below Thornton's expectation for shipments of 14 million, the analyst said that investors will be more interested in Motorola's prospects for the current quarter, when sales of its new phones kick in.

The report follows the introduction of two phones based on Google Inc's Android system, around which Motorola reorganized its entire cellphone business.

Verizon Wireless, a unit of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, has already started heavily advertising one of these devices as an alternative to iPhone, from Apple Inc.

Motorola forecast fourth quarter operating earnings per share in a range of 7 cents to 9 cents. Analysts had expected a profit of 6 cents per share on average.

Motorola also appointed Edward Fitzpatrick chief financial officer. He had been its acting CFO.