The world's second-largest mobile phone maker, Motorola, last night posted a higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profit, but sales in the wireless phone unit fell.
Motorola shares fell slightly after hours following the release of earnings.
Delayed deliveries of new products, offering such popular features as integrated digital cameras and color screens, hurt Motorola's mobile sales. Last month, it blamed shortages of parts, especially lenses.
However, Motorola forecast better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and sales based on expected rising sales volume of the new cell phones.
The company also said it expects to report net earnings in the first quarter in the range of 5 cents to 7 cents a share on sales of $6.4 billion to $6.8 billion.
Motorola and its rivals, including Nokia, have suffered a slowdown in demand for mobile phones and wireless network equipment over the past couple of years, but demand has picked up.