Motorola posted a sharp rise in profits Wednesday as its sales of high margin smartphones rose dramatically, boosted by the success of its iPhone competitor, the Droid X, dpa reported.
The US technology company reported net income of 162 million dollars on revenue of 5.4 billion dollars, compared to a profit of 26 million dollars a year ago, when revenue was 5.5 billion dollars.
While sales of all mobile phones dropped to 8.3 million units from 8.5 million units in the first quarter, sales of high margin smartphones rose from 2.3 million to 2.7 million units, the company said.
"The Droid X launch has been very well received and is seen as one of the best smartphones in the market," said Sanjay Jha, Motorola's co-chief executive officer. "We are in a strong position to continue improving our share in the rapidly growing smartphone market and improving our operating performance."
Motorola has lost out to rivals such as Apple and Samsung in recent years, but the smartphone sales figures were seen as validating the company's strategy to adopt Google's Android operating system and the earnings report sent Motorola's shares sharply higher in morning trading.