US telecoms equipment giant Motorola said today that it was seeing a continuing slowdown in the US market for mobile phones and signs of slowing activity in Europe.
Motorola was still expecting to post an operating loss in the first quarter, as already announced last month, the group's president and chief operating officer Bob Growney said at a news conference held at the CeBIT computer and information technology trade fair in Hannover.
'The slowdown is much more apparent in the US, but there is also a detectable slowness in European markets,' Growney said. 'I wish I could give more positive comments but there is a great deal of volatility right now' regarding the overall economic picture, he said.
Meanwhile, the head of Motorola's personal communciations division, Mike Zafirovski, said that the company had won an order for 500,000 GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) phones from a mainland European operator. Zafirovski did not reveal the name of the purchaser, which would be announced next week, he said. Financial details were not revealed.
