Motorola continued an upbeat 2004 by announcing sharply increased profits in its third quarter earnings today. Revenues were $8.62bn, up from $6.83bn a year ago. Profits rose to $479m. The company had its phone division to thank, shipping more than 23 million units and generating $390m profits on revenues of $3.9bn.

Moto announced a new range of clamshells this month, which should benefit the next quarters earnings. Even the long-troubled semiconductor division, due to be spun-off from its parent, reported a slim profit of $82 million on revenues of $1.4bn. Citing wins in EDGE and push to talk, the infrastructure division made $175m profit on $1.3bn of income.

The healthy results weren't enough to please Wall Street, however, and shares slid 4.8 per cent after the market had closed. ®

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