Motorola has reported strong second quarter results thanks to consumer demand for its Droid phones, which run on Google’s Android operating system.
The company announced net income of $162 million, up from $26 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue for the quarter was $5.41 billion, slightly down on Q2 2009, but still ahead of analysts’ predictions of $5.2 billion.
Motorola's Droid X, the most recent phone to be powered by the Android system, sold out at Verizon Wireless and Best Buy Co. stores after its debut this month. Motorola said it shipped 8.3 million handsets in the second quarter, 2.7 million of which were smart phones.
Sanjay Jha, Motorola's co-chief executive responsible for the handset business, said on a conference call that the Droid X was "off to a great start" and "exceeding our expectations." He said he expects the company to launch "meaningfully more" than 20 smart phones this year.
Jha admitted that the company could not keep up with demand for the Droid X. A shortage of mobile phone chips, he said, is "our largest constraint."
Motorola confirmed it was still planning to spinoff the phone unit and the division that makes cable TV set-top boxes.
