KRZR Not Selling Well ...

KRZR Drives Motorola Crazy
Sale of Latest Model Not So Strong As Expected

Original article may be found here ---> The Korea Times : KRZR Drives Motorola Crazy

By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter

Motorola, the world's second-largest producer of cellular phones, is suffering setbacks in repeating the success of its iconic product, the ultra-slim RAZR.
The U.S.-based company tried to attract style-sensitive customers with its latest phone, the KRZR, but the responses are lukewarm both at home and abroad.

SK Telecom, the only South Korean carrier dealing with the model, yesterday said the KRZR still falls behind the RAZR in monthly sales.

Some 24,500 KRZRs, which debuted late last September, were sold in December, just half of the RAZR, of which sales amounted to more than 41,000 during the same period.

Although sales of the KRZR increased last month in line with price cuts, experts said the handset would not be a match to the phenomenally successful RAZR.

SK Telecom, the nation's biggest wireless carrier by any measure, has yet to compile records for last month.

``It would be worrisome for Motorola that its latest phone is still failing to catch up with the RAZR, which was released in Korea up to 20 months ago,'' a Seoul analyst said.

``The market consensus is that the KRZR would not be a hit when compared to the RAZR that almost one million Koreans have snapped up thus far,'' he said.

In fact, the KRZR was under fire here from the beginning due to suspicions that the phone copied the KV2300 of LG Electronics, the world's No. 5 player. LG released the KV2300 in August, more than a month earlier than the KRZR.

LG claimed both models are similar as they are flat, rectangular flip phones with a high-gloss black finish. LG contended they are also equipped with the same 1.3-megapixel camera and the touch control keys on their fronts have a strikingly similar arrangement.

``At first glance, we recognized that the KRZR has adopted the concepts of our recent products _ simple clamshell models armed with touch-sensitive keys,'' LG spokesman Lee Hyoung-kun said.

In the global markets, the worse-than-expected performance of the KRZR also seems to be weighing on Motorola, of which bottom line plunged in the three months ending Dec. 31.

In an article last week, the International Herald Tribune attributed Motorola's falling profit margins to waning popularity of the RAZR and the disappointing performance of its successors such as the KRZR.

Motorola netted $624 million during the final quarter of 2006 in profits, substantially down from $1.2 billion a year before.

The newspaper added the lack of innovative design is responsible for the rocky start of the KRZR.

``But the KRZR looks a lot like a RAZR, albeit with a slight thinner body, rounded edges and glossy finish. Analysts say consumers are unwilling to open their wallets for something that appears, at least on the surface, to be yesterday's style,'' it said.

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Interesting. Sounds like moto was getting greedy thinking they would have the same success with the KRZR

Originally Posted by tavenger5

Interesting. Sounds like moto was getting greedy thinking they would have the same success with the KRZR

Indeed.