"only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

[Aquila]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

Was reading an article on this today and Motorola laid off 200 employees from the plant (basicly a whole assembly shift) and the jobs were expected to last into next year. That kind of proves it is not selling as good as Motorola expected it too.

I'd consider replacing, "That kind of proves..." with, "That could suggest to me that..." in order to make this a stronger point. Proof would be Moto releasing a statement that says, "The Moto X is not selling as well as we anticipated", and even then we'd have to translate between the statement and the context they're making it under, to keep a clear perspective on what their actual up front expectations were and what their modified expectations have become over time, etc.

 

[tx_tuff]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

Link please.

Took a minute but I found it again Is the Moto X the Most Disappointing Smartphone of 2013?

I don't own a Moto X I have a LG G2 so I for one can't make a real comment on the phone itself. But the reason I read this is the headline caught my eye, my first thought was how can this be because everything I have seen by people who have the ohone freak love it! So I read it and found out it was more about sales than the phone itself.

 

[Ry]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

Took a minute but I found it again Is the Moto X the Most Disappointing Smartphone of 2013?

I don't own a Moto X I have a LG G2 so I for one can't make a real comment on the phone itself. But the reason I read this is the headline caught my eye, my first thought was how can this be because everything I have seen by people who have the ohone freak love it! So I read it and found out it was more about sales than the phone itself.

Interesting. Seems this was missed.

Fort Worth Motorola plant sheds workers - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com

"When they first hired everybody, it was a hiring frenzy. Some people quit jobs to go to this job. The governor came, he told us how we were a part of history," said Dee, an employee who didn't want her last name used.

Dee estimates her and roughly 200 temporary employees are now without a job. She was told the ‘C shift' was being canceled. The jobs were supposed to last at least six months.

 

[tx_tuff]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

Interesting. Seems this was missed.

Fort Worth Motorola plant sheds workers - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com

Even more info than what I saw. So it looks like into less than 2 months of what should have been a 6 month job they let go of a whole shift of 200 people. That can't be good news. Hopefully now that you they have Moto Maker for all carriers sales will pick up.

 

[PDT816]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

Interesting. Seems this was missed.

Fort Worth Motorola plant sheds workers - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com

Not really a Motorola plant either, the plant is owned and all the assembly line workers are Flextronics employees. I'm assuming the story of people being laid off is true, but it's not very good reporting and the figure is from the employee not management.

 

[Ry]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

Another interesting point is that with the Moto X not priced like a Nexus, it's very easy for it to be a money maker. Lets say for example, they cost $200 to make and sell for $600 to keep numbers easy. If they had a total of $1,000,000,000 in sunk costs for this device (the plant, 500 mill advertising, etc), then obviously they'd need to sell 2.5 million units to break even. However much of the R&D budget and other sunk costs can be offset by the Droid line (you could develop the X8 for Droid and then just use it in the X, etc) and the TX plant can be separated because it's useful for future assembly operations.

The BOM already does include some sunk costs (they line item an R&D amount based on a projected sales volume and include it, same thing with manufacturing costs, etc) and so assuming a profit that high isn't wholly unreasonable, especially given the strategy of selling through carriers... because carriers like upgrades, rather than of contract sales. In those cases, every time you gave your $99 to Verizon or AT&T, they paid the delta to Moto by the carrier, less the markup if any, from MSRP.

It's quite possible that the X has a total sales goal of around 1 to 1.5 million by end of life to consider this a break even and successful product launch.

I think as long as Motorola continues to lose money for Google, there will always be this cloud of Google "spring-cleaning" Motorola.

 

[Aquila]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

I think as long as Motorola continues to lose money for Google, there will always be this cloud of Google "spring-cleaning" Motorola.

To outsiders, sure and that conclusion is not unreasonable. I just suspect that some Google execs must be laughing all the way to the bank at their relatively cheap investments for increasing visibility on Google Now (search).

 

[newsman787]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

My guess is that if Samsung goes onto a massive commitment with its own operating system, then Google has Motorola there to really fill in on the Android front.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[planoman]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

This is a bummer because the Moto X is a winner. They need to focus more on the touchless features etc instead of just the moto maker and customization in their ads. But when I think about it, I have only seen two in the wild so I know it is a well kept secret among those that know android.

I hope business picks up for the sake of Motorola and my homie in Fort Worth! We do not need to see people getting laid off when they have a superb product!

 

[UJ95x]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

This is a bummer because the Moto X is a winner. They need to focus more on the touchless features etc instead of just the moto maker and customization in their ads. But when I think about it i have only seen two in the wild so I know it is a well kept secret among those that know android.

I hope business picks up for the sake of Motorola and my homie in Fort Worth! We do not need to see people getting laid off when they have a superb product!

I haven't seen any in the wild
Haven't seen any Nexus 5s. Only a handful on N4s and HTC Ones.
iPhones, iPhones everywhere

 

[Aquila]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

This is a bummer because the Moto X is a winner. They need to focus more on the touchless features etc instead of just the moto maker and customization in their ads. But when I think about it i have only seen two in the wild so I know it is a well kept secret among those that know android.

I hope business picks up for the sake of Motorola and my homie in Fort Worth! We do not need to see people getting laid off when they have a superb product!

I would say it's pretty unrealistic to expect any virgin product to compete with Samsung or Apple and I'd hope Google and Moto are smart enough not to have expectations of sales in that stratosphere. I

 

[Aquila]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

I haven't seen any in the wild
Haven't seen any Nexus 5s. Only a handful on N4s and HTC Ones.
iPhones, iPhones everywhere

I've seen a few, my boss is getting one from Moto Maker on Verizon. She loves mine. A nerd at Target's logistics team let me play with his Nexus 5, only one I've seen. Lately I've been seeing a lot of really old Samsung and Moto phones. Like S2, the original Razr Maxx, one guy even had AT&T service and an Atrix. Silly, poor fool.

 

[planoman]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

I would say it's pretty unrealistic to expect any virgin product to compete with Samsung or Apple and I'd hope Google and Moto are smart enough not to have expectations of sales in that stratosphere. I

They (Google) committed 500 MM to ads for the Moto X. Now that it is on MotoMaker for all carriers the advertising blitz with start! I wonder if Schmidt is still carrying a Moto X or if he switched to the Nexus 5?

 

[Aquila]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

They (Google) committed 500 MM to ads for the Moto X. Now that it is on MotoMaker for all carriers the advertising blitz with start! I wonder if Schmidt is still carrying a Moto X or if he switched to the Nexus 5?

He has a Moto X for a daily driver and the prototype Kudo for parties.

 

[UJ95x]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

I've seen a few, my boss is getting one from Moto Maker on Verizon. She loves mine. A nerd at Target's logistics team let me play with his Nexus 5, only one I've seen. Lately I've been seeing a lot of really old Samsung and Moto phones. Like S2, the original Razr Maxx, one guy even had AT&T service and an Atrix. Silly, poor fool.

Yeah that's weird. I see tons of GS2s and old Moto phones. I see the occasional GS4 but not as much as I'd expect since they "sold 40M"

 

[Aquila]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

Yeah that's weird. I see tons of GS2s and old Moto phones. I see the occasional GS4 but not as much as I'd expect since they "sold 40M"

oo, I haven't seen a G2 yet other than in the store a couple employees had them.

 

[JungleLarry]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

Another interesting point is that with the Moto X not priced like a Nexus, it's very easy for it to be a money maker. Lets say for example, they cost $200 to make and sell for $600 to keep numbers easy. If they had a total of $1,000,000,000 in sunk costs for this device (the plant, 500 mill advertising, etc), then obviously they'd need to sell 2.5 million units to break even. However much of the R&D budget and other sunk costs can be offset by the Droid line (you could develop the X8 for Droid and then just use it in the X, etc) and the TX plant can be separated because it's useful for future assembly operations.

The BOM already does include some sunk costs (they line item an R&D amount based on a projected sales volume and include it, same thing with manufacturing costs, etc) and so assuming a profit that high isn't wholly unreasonable, especially given the strategy of selling through carriers... because carriers like upgrades, rather than of contract sales. In those cases, every time you gave your $99 to Verizon or AT&T, they paid the delta to Moto by the carrier, less the markup if any, from MSRP.

It's quite possible that the X has a total sales goal of around 1 to 1.5 million by end of life to consider this a break even and successful product launch.

PP&E are long-term tangible assets, not sunk costs.

 

[Aquila]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

PP&E are long-term tangible assets, not sunk costs.

True, and I get that on a go forward basis, but for the present the only thing that plant has been used for (that I know of) is for this one device. So while on a P&L from a device standpoint it could be not included or apportioned over the entirety of the business, from Google's standpoint, it'd be easy to associate those costs with their Q2/Q3 expenses relative to Moto Mobility and if we're worried about Google's attitude toward Moto losing money, it's still relevant. PP&E not being referenced at all just lowers the break-even bar in my example, though it's easily possible for this or any other device to break even and for Moto to still lose money over all due to investitures across other areas.

 

[UJ95x]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

oo, I haven't seen a G2 yet other than in the store a couple employees had them.

I haven't seen one of those in the wild. A handful of Note 3s as well.
I see more iPhones than all of the others combines even though Android has more of the market. Strange, do people with Android phones just hide/not use them? XD

 

[anon(847090)]

Re: "only 500,000 Moto Xs sold in third quarter"

I haven't seen any in the wild
Haven't seen any Nexus 5s. Only a handful on N4s and HTC Ones.
iPhones, iPhones everywhere

I saw one even before i bought my Moto X