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Market News

SCHAUMBURG, IL - Unless current market trends change quickly, Motorola may soon become the world's fourth-largest mobile phone maker.

Nokia continues to lead the market with about 40% of the market share, and Samsung surpassed Motorola to take the second position last summer. Sony Ericsson has recently released several new phone products, and if Motorola's phone sales continue to decline, the company may end the year behind its rivals.

Stuart Reed, the former mobile phone chief has resigned, a month after CEO Greg Brown took over his duties. Brown has been under pressure from shareholders to break up the company, and in January, Brown and the board put the company’s mobile phone segment up for sale, while contending that the unit is fixable and that he's looking for a new chief in the attempt to turn things around.

Dell computer had been cited as a possible purchaser, but Dell's recent poor earnings report indicate that the company is not in the position for a new acquisition.

Without a new phone product to market, industry reports say Motorola's market share decline will likely continue, and the company did not present any new designs at two recent industry product showcase events.

SAN DIEGO, CA - A senior executive at Sony has reported solid U.S. sales for the company in the first two months of the year, despite economic concerns.

"We have already had a solid January and February," said Stan Glasgow, Sony US president and COO.

He noted that the company had a record holiday sales season, and that it had gained market share for some products. He added that he expected total global sales of Blu-ray high-definition movie players produced by all manufacturers to reach approximately 5 million in 2008, and that most will be sold in the U.S.

CHICAGO - AT&T will reportedly invest $1 billion worldwide this year to expand networks and services in key markets.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Greg Brutus of At&T Asia Pacific said that the largest portion of the investment would be spent outside the United States, to install undersea fiber-optic cables for an Ethernet network in Europe and Asia.