In the dusty days of yore, circa 2006, Motorola bestrode the world. Thanks to the group's wildly popular Razr flip-phone, its market share peaked at more than a fifth of global handset sales. Yet, with third-quarter results released yesterday, the struggling group managed to dent expectations that appeared to have already hit rock bottom. The question now is whether Motorola can avoid becoming an also-ran in the mobile phone market.

The group is retrenching, in effect abandoning Europe and parts of Asia. A planned spin-out of the mobile arm from the enterprise and networks businesses has been delayed until equity market conditions improve. Meanwhile, the first half of next year will be dire, as the group struggles to sell a collection of phones that largely lack the two products consumers want - either cheap low-end devices or expensive whizz-bang smartphones. Motorola's market share could fall to 7 per cent next year and analyst forecasts, formerly for a small operating profit from mobiles, now expect almost a billion-dollar loss.