Late Motorola phone out soon: CEO

Ben Klayman

CHICAGO: Motorola Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Edward Zander said the world's second-largest maker of cell phones hopes to roll out a camera phone that had been delayed with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. within the next month.

Camera phones are the hottest part of the global cell phone market, but Motorola's lineup in that market has been hurt by delays, something Zander has promised to remedy since he began the job at the start of this year.

"Hopefully you'll see this in the next 30 days or so," Zander said of the company's V600 phone.

"We are late about a month, a month and a half," he said at a Merrill Lynch conference in New York that was broadcast over the Internet. "Sometimes either we set the wrong schedule dates or expectations, and we've got to get off of that. To make this phone operate is like 10,000 tests and everything else. I'm not making excuses. We're late."

Motorola said in January that AT&T Wireless would carry the V600 starting in February, but the No. 3, U.S. wireless carrier said earlier this month the launch had been delayed for further testing. It said the phone would be available in late April.

Motorola previously said the delay was part of normal carrier testing and was not an indication of problems with the phone or supply issues.

Last fall, two large customers -- Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless -- reported delays in receiving camera phones from Motorola in time for the critical holiday selling season. Motorola blamed parts shortages, especially of lenses, for the delays.

Zander said the V600 has received great reviews, but repeated that the company needs to improve its execution.

"This is like hearing about the movie that just got four stars and you can't find a movie theater to go see it. It hurts me," he said.

He said other mobile phones based on the same platform are available in the United States and Europe.

Volume of the so-called "triplets" lineup of phones is now 1 million a month and could top 2 million in the second quarter, President Mike Zafirovski said in Hanover, Germany, at CeBIT, the world's biggest electronics trade fair.

Zander, who has been on the job since early January, said he wants to strengthen the Schaumburg, Illinois, company's balance sheet further and that would allow acquisitions.

"I want to grow the company," he said. "There's going to be some attractive opportunities to consolidate, some attractive opportunities to pick up (intellectual property). With a strong balance sheet, it just gives you that flexibility."

Barring those opportunities, Motorola will look at boosting its dividend or buying back its stock, he said.

Zander said the company's management team needs to work together better on setting strategy, resource allocation or whatever goals the company sets.

He also said that while the company is financially sound, he wants more detailed financial reports about its businesses. "We are financially very solid ... but the day-to-day area I think we have some work to do to be honest with you."

Zander said Motorola also needs to boost the return on its research and development investments, which total $3.7 billion annually.

© Reuters