Motorola Mobility posted a second straight quarterly net profit on Wednesday but the US handset maker said sales had slowed as customers anticipate the arrival of the iPhone with Verizon Wireless.

Motorola Mobility, which split off from parent company Motorola on January 4 to become a separately traded entity, reported a fourth-quarter net profit of $80 million compared with a loss of $204 million a year ago.

Fourth-quarter revenue increased 21.3 percent to $3.4 billion.

It was the second consecutive quarterly profit for the Illinois-based Motorola Mobility after years of losses but the company said it expected to post a loss in the current quarter of between $26 million and $62 million.

The gloomy forecast and competition from the iPhone at Motorola Mobility partner Verizon Wireless combined to send shares in the company down 7.55 percent to $32.20 in after-hours electronic trading.

Motorola Mobility said it shipped 4.9 million smartphones in the quarter, up from two million a year ago and 3.8 million last quarter.

But Motorola Mobility chairman and chief executive Sanjay Jha said there had been "a little slowdown" in sales since the announcement Verizon Wireless would begin selling the iPhone next month, ending AT&T's monopoly over the device.

Jha, who has tied the company's fortunes to Google's Android mobile operating system, expressed confidence in the future of the company.

"The improvement in our financial results last year, including profitability in the fourth quarter, is indicative of the progress we have made in delivering innovative smartphones and improving the Mobile Devices business," he said.

"With the global opportunities ahead, along with our diversified portfolio, our brand, and our people, we are well positioned to grow, and further improve our financial results in 2011," Jha said.

Jha said that Motorola's answer to the iPad, an Android-based tablet called Xoom, which was crowned the best new gadget at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month, would go on sale in February.

Motorola Mobility also said it expects to sell between 20 million and 23 million smartphones and tablet computers this year.

earlier related report
Hynix earnings sink on weak chip prices
Seoul (AFP) Jan 27, 2011 - South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, said Thursday its fourth-quarter net profit plunged as weak demand for personal computers pushed down chip prices.

For the October-December quarter, Hynix posted a 110.1 billion won net profit ($98.7 million), down 83 percent a year earlier, on a consolidated basis including its overseas operations.

The company reported a record quarterly net profit of 1.06 trillion won in the previous quarter, thanks partly to higher sales of chips used in mobile devices and a stronger won, which helped cut its overseas debt repayments.

Operating profit was 417.6 billion won, down 41 percent year-on-year, as sales fell two percent from a year earlier to 2.748 trillion won.

The result was weaker than expected. Six analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had on average forecast a 244.1 billion won net profit.

However, the world's second-largest computer memory chip maker after Samsung Electronics Co., gave a positive outlook, citing the rising demand for new devices.

"Demand for memory chips will rise with increasing lineups of new electronics devices," Hynix said in a statement. "We will continue to expand our high-margin product portfolio and aim for a stable profitability growth."

Prices of dynamic access memory chips started to erode from the second half of last year due to slowing demand for electronics products in developed nations.

But this decline would be somewhat compensated over the coming quarters by the company's speciality chips mainly used for mobile devices and its improved competitive edge in the NAND flash memory chip business, analysts said.

-- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report --