Analyst points to 'disappointing' sales of Xoom and Atrix

by Steven Mostyn - Apr 7 2011, 05:39

Motorola’s latest batch of cutting-edge mobile products are struggling to find traction with consumers, according to Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette, who this week labeled sales of the Xoom tablet and Atrix smartphone as “disappointing” in a research note issued to clients.

“Based on our checks, we believe overall sell-through trends for the Xoom and Atrix have been disappointing,” outlined Faucette in a Forbes report, before revealing that he’s now slashed Motorola’s revenue and earning projections for this year.

“In particular, we believe Atrix’s lower-than-forecast volumes are a result of the $49 iPhone 3GS and the HTC Inspire, which kept Atrix sales well below forecast in spite of marketing focus put on the Atrix by AT&T,” he added.

Equipped with a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4G connectivity, a 5.0 mega-pixel camera, a VGA secondary camera, a 4.0-inch touchscreen, and Google’s Android operating system (v2.2), the powerful and feature-rich smartphone seemingly justifies its competitive $199 USD price tag.

However, that clearly isn’t the case, with pennywise consumers instead preferring to either jump aboard the Apple brandwagon via an older but considerably cheaper model of the iconic iPhone, or opt for the established solidity of HTC’s Inspire. 

As for Motorola’s future, Faucette warned in his note that any more failures to “substantially differentiate” its products from “the rest of the pack” will likely result in “another meaningful step down” for the company’s shareholders.

Although no concrete information was offered up regarding the Xoom, estimates released by Deutsche Bank reveal that Motorola has only managed to sell a measly 100,000 units since the device launched on February 24.

By way of comparison, Apple sold around 300,000 units of the original iPad during its first 24 hours of availability, and has since gone on to shift a staggering 16 million units worldwide.

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