Motorola earned almost $2bn more than it had expected to in the first three months of its current fiscal year, with mobile phones contributing to the growth. Although new CEO Ed Zander warned against reading too much into one quarter's results, a 67 per cent increase in handset sales will surely warm his toes [*].

Motorola clocked $8.6bn gross income in the quarter with a $608m profit. The handset (or "Personal Communications") division accounted for $4bn on the back of a new range of high-end phones. But sales grew across the board, with global telecoms infrastructure up 38 per cent to $1.38bn on the strength of demand for 3G kit.

[*] In his company emails, the deeply tanned Mr Zander has been promising staff that he'll eventually get used to the Chicago winter. Fortunately, and thanks to extensive contacts on the ground, we have some good news. This winter only has a couple of months to run, and will be over just before the next one starts. ®

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