Motorola Mobility just sent out some updated guidance on its fourth-quarter 2010 earnings, and it’s not sounding great. The company’s estimating $3.4 billion in sales with “modest profitability.” Some 10.5 million mobile devices were sold, with 5.3 million of them being smartphones. That’s still morem smartphones than the 4.8 million in shipped in the third quarter.

The ominous part of Moto’s update? That the Q4 results were “impacted by the increased competitive environment in the Mobile Device business and higher legal costs associated with ongoing Intellectual Property (IP) litigations.” In other words, lawsuits and competition, folks. Lawsuits and competition.

Motorola also gave a non-update on its being acquired by Google, saying that “the Company continues to work closely with Google to complete the proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility as expeditiously as possible,” and that they’re still expecting to close in early 2012.

Motorola will announce its Q3 earnings on Jan. 26, 2012.

Source: Motorola

The Motorola Droid 4 has already been spotted in all its glory but there isn’t a whole lot of info out there when it comes to a release date. Its been speculated that it would be a while yet before you can head on down to a retail location and pick one up given the Motorola Droid 3 hasn’t been out all that long but we’re not so sure about that.

Motorola has been busy as of late pushing devices out left and right and with the Motorola Droid 4 now appearing in some Verizon internal testing systems, we’re inclined once again to believe it will arrive sooner rather then later. Either way — we’re positive this is not the last we’ll hear of the device.

Source: Droid-Life

As a lover of my couch, I didn’t get too worked up with the MOTOACTV announcement. What did pique my interest, however, is the Smart Actions function that comes preloaded on the Droid RAZR. Motorola says that this nifty little feature is going to improve your battery life by 30%, which is great, since we won’t be able to buy an extended battery for the device. Smart Actions will decrease processor speed, slow down data, and dim your display when the battery is approaching crisis levels.

But Smart Actions’ purpose isn’t solely battery related. For example, as you’ll see in the video, it allows you to program a website to open when your alarm goes off. Now that’s pretty cool.

A representative for Motorola said that the company hopes to include this on all future devices, but no word on whether or not it can be ported to existing Motorola smartphones. 

ComScore has released its latest round of data, which tracks the smartphone market during the months of May, June, and July of 2011. During this time period, 82.2 million Americans owned a smartphone, up 10 percent from the previous three month period. Google’s Android remains the top smartphone platform with a 41.8 percent market share, which represents a growth of 5.4 points from the previous three months. Apple’s iOS comes in second with 27 percent, while RIM and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 represent 21.7 and 5.7 percent respectively.

Hardware wise, Samsung remains king, with 25.5 percent market share, with LG coming in second with 20.9 percent. Motorola is third with 14.1 percent market share, a drop of one point for the recently acquired manufacturer. Apple and RIM round out the market with 9.5 and 7.6 percent respectively. Remember that this data represents both feature phones and smartphones, which may explain why HTC, which produces smartphones only, is curiously absent from the data.

Among features used by consumers, text messaging is still on top, with 70 percent of smartphone owners reporting usage. Internet browsing and app downloads are both up with 41.1 and 40.6 percent usage respectively. ComScore’s full report is available at the source link.

Source: ComScore

The Droid Bionic has made an appearance on Motorola’s store page, which would be far more exciting if it had a “Buy now!” button or something. But, alas, it doesn’t, and so what we have is yet another tease for the phone that was announced in January (see our initial hands-on) before being sent back to the drawing board for release sometime in September.

A bright side here is that you can get a clean look at the official renders. (Ed. note: We blew them up a tad here if you click for the full resolution.) And it’s with little surprise that we once again see that it’s thicker than a Droid X, with a noticeable hump for the camera. LTE’s like that (for now), folks.

Source: store.motorola.com; thanks to everyone who sent this in!

The Droid Bionic has made an appearance on Motorola’s store page, which would be far more exciting if it had a “Buy now!” button or something. But, alas, it doesn’t, and so what we have is yet another tease for the phone that was announced in January (see our initial hands-on) before being sent back to the drawing board for release sometime in September.

A bright side here is that you can get a clean look at the official renders. (Ed. note: We blew them up a tad here if you click for the full resolution.) And it’s with little surprise that we once again see that it’s thicker than a Droid X, with a noticeable hump for the camera. LTE’s like that (for now), folks.

Source: store.motorola.com; thanks to everyone who sent this in!

The Droid Bionic has made an appearance on Motorola’s store page, which would be far more exciting if it had a “Buy now!” button or something. But, alas, it doesn’t, and so what we have is yet another tease for the phone that was announced in January (see our initial hands-on) before being sent back to the drawing board for release sometime in September.

A bright side here is that you can get a clean look at the official renders. (Ed. note: We blew them up a tad here if you click for the full resolution.) And it’s with little surprise that we once again see that it’s thicker than a Droid X, with a noticeable hump for the camera. LTE’s like that (for now), folks.

Source: store.motorola.com; thanks to everyone who sent this in!

The Droid Bionic has made an appearance on Motorola’s store page, which would be far more exciting if it had a “Buy now!” button or something. But, alas, it doesn’t, and so what we have is yet another tease for the phone that’s was announced in January (see our initial hands-on) before being sent back to the drawing board for release sometime in September.

A bright side here is that you can get a clean look at the official renders. (Ed. note: We blew them up a tad here if you click for the full resolution.) And it’s with little surprise that we once again see that it’s thicker than a Droid X, with a noticeable hump for the camera. LTE’s like that (for now), folks.

Source: store.motorola.com; thanks to everyone who sent this in!

So just what is the worlds most powerful smartphone? Motorola would have you believe it’s their Atrix, but the UK Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) beg to differ. After receiving complaints about one of their adverts, they made the ruling that because the Samsung Galaxy S II has a faster processor the Motorola claims could be seen as misleading.

Motorola claim that the power of the Atrix isn’t processor focused, but more around its overall abilities and combined features, but this apparently doesn’t matter. The advertisement is only allowed to be shown going forwards without the offending phrase. 

Would it confuse you? Check out the advert after the break and make your own decision.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Youtube link for mobile viewing

Just as was promised, Android 3.1 for the Motorola Xoom in Europe is now rolling out in stages.  Motorola Europe took to their Facebook page to make the announcement and from the looks of things, some users are already getting it loaded up:

Android 3.1 for Motorola XOOM in Europe has now started to roll out in a number of countries. We are rolling out in stages and will let you now when the update is available in your specific country and so please watch this space. Details will be posted within the discussions tab and so please join us there or visit www.motorola.com/myxoom

Hoorah for updates! Go ahead and check for system updates now,  you may find it waiting for you. Now the real question on everyone’s mind is — when is the next update for Android 3.2 coming?

Source: Motorola Europe Facebook