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Motorola Posts 3Q Profit

moto-logoMotorola is reporting an unexpected profit for the third quarter as operating losses in its struggling mobile phone division narrowed.

Its shares are jumping more than 5 percent in premarket trading.

The company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, said it earned $12 million, or a penny per share, in the three months ended Oct. 2. It lost $397 million, or 18 cents per share, in the period a year ago.

Excluding unusual items, Motorola says its adjusted earnings were 2 cents per share. Analysts had expected a break-even quarter.

Motorola Inc. says its sales fell 27 percent to $5.4 billion. Analysts were looking for $5.5 billion.

It also says Edward Fitzpatrick, the company’s acting chief financial officer, has been named permanent CFO.

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Dena Cassella
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Haole built. O'ahu grown
Motorola made one of the year’s best phones — but it’s not enough
The Motorola Edge Plus (2023) lying face-down on a table.

Motorola needs to see the Edge Plus (2023) as a new beginning, a jumping-off point for a revitalized brand, and not just another phone in an ever-growing list of disappointing models.

Why? It’s apparently too good not to signal a new start. We gave the Edge Plus (2023) a 9/10 score in our review, so it rivals the very best phones you can buy today. It’s clearly excellent, but this came as a total surprise — because Motorola is one of the most frustratingly inconsistent phone makers out there today.
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It’s official — Motorola’s next Razr is the 2023 phone I can’t wait for
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra rear side.

Motorola keeps churning out phones across all price brackets, from flagships in the Edge series to clamshell foldables in the Razr lineup. But barely any have managed to stand out against established rivals like Samsung.

In 2023, that just might change with the upcoming Razr 40 Ultra/Razr Ultra, a flip folding phone that looks astonishingly good, functionally ahead of the competition, and with impressive hardware inside. This phone looks like Motorola finally decided to go all out and give the best foldable that it can.

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Samsung is done for if Motorola’s next Razr foldable looks like this
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra leaked image

Foldable phones look primed to take an evolutionary step in 2023. Google, the lord of Android, is now in the game with the Pixel Fold. Samsung leaks suggest that its Galaxy Z Flip 5 will solve nagging woes by embracing a gapless design and finally making the secondary screen more usable. But it looks like Motorola will own the year with its upcoming clamshell-style foldable phone, the Moto Razr 40 Ultra. 
Industry insider Evan Blass (aka @evleaks) has shared a fresh batch of high-resolution renders depicting the phone in a trio of shades — including black, a peppy shade of magenta, and an understated teal green shade. Motorola’s next offering looks astoundingly different from the previous clamshell foldable in the Razr series, and we're all for its aesthetic makeover. 

But what really stands out about the phone is the large secondary display at the back that also surrounds the camera lenses, plus the visibly gapless design when the two halves are shut closed. Ever since the first-gen Razr foldable arrived on the scene, Motorola has kept refining the design, paying special attention to the secondary display by stretching its screen real estate and making it more functional.
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Blass' older leaks suggest that Motorola will be offering a healthy bunch of home and lock screen customization options for the cover display. Plus, it appears that these customization tricks will play to the tunes of Android’s Material You theming system. We dearly hope that Motorola also lets users run apps, or at least some of them, in their full functional glory, instead of just offering a rudimentary level of interactivity.  

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