Motorola Mobility got 28% of its revenue from Verizon in 2010
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Verizon accounted for 28% of Motorola Mobility’s revenue last year, largely on the success of its Droid phone line.
The Motorola Droid, Droid 2, Droid X and upcoming Droid Bionic are only offered though Verizon -- an increasingly important mobile carrier for the electronics manufacturer.
The relationship between Motorola and Verizon has grown over the last few years, as Motorola noted in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
In 2009, Verizon sales made up 17% of Motorola’s revenue, up from 13% in 2008.
Verizon’s selling of Apple’s iPhone 4 -- which began Feb. 10 -- and any subsequent iPhones could be the largest threat so far to derailing Motorola’s growth with Verizon, something Motorola alluded to in an assessment of its risks in the SEC filing.
‘We have several large customers and the loss of, or a significant reduction in revenue from, one or more of these customers could have a negative impact on our business,’ Motorola said in the filing. ‘During 2010, approximately 28% of our net revenues were from Verizon Communications Inc. ... It may be difficult to replace or find new large customers, especially with increasing concentration in the U.S. where there are a limited number of carriers.
‘If any significant customer, particularly Verizon or Sprint Nextel or other large customers, such as Comcast, stopped doing business with us, or significantly reduced the level of business they do with us, it could impact our ability to service other customers using similar technology and our financial results could be negatively impacted.’
Motorola is looking to replicate the success it’s had with the Droids on Verizon with other carriers -- namely AT&T, where Motorola is set to launch its first 4G phone, the Atrix, on Jan. 22. Both the Atrix and the Droid line of phones run on Google’s Android operating system.
Google is another important relationship for Motorola. The upcoming Motorola Xoom will be the first tablet to ship with Android’s Honeycomb OS, a version of Android built specifically for tablet computers.
The Xoom has been hyped as possibly the first real threat to the dominance of the Apple iPad, though Motorola has yet to reveal an official release date or price for the device. Rumors have floated saying it will sell for as little as $700 or as much as $1,200, while the iPad starts at about $500.
Whenever the Xoom drops, it will (at least initially) only be available with wireless plans through Verizon.
Motorola reported a profit of $11.5 billion in 2010, up from $11.1 billion in 2009. Profit rose 9% in the company’s Mobile Devices segment and dropped 7% in the home segment, Motorola said.
Shares of Motorola rose 20 cents on Friday to $30.03.
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles