Friday, March 10, 2006

Cingular, T-Mobile halt Razr sales due to glitch

Reuters.com reports that Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile USA "have temporarily stopped selling the Razr due to a technical glitch that causes the phone to drop calls or shut down." According to Motorola, "only a limited number of phones were affected and the problem would have no impact on its financial results. The faulty phones were sold to operators between January 16 and February 28, with the first of the U.S. shipments on February 1"

Ed Snyder at Charter Equity Research opined that "he did not expect a material impact from the problem but expressed concerns about how Motorola manages its suppliers."

Bear Stearns analyst Phil Cusick estimated that "Cingular and T-Mobile USA derive 10 percent to 15 percent of their handset sales from the Razr. A week without the Razr may hurt their market shares for March and distract sales people dealing with return issues."