Motorolola shifted 5.3 million smartphones in Q4

Ahead of its full company earnings report, Motorola has released figures of its mobile phone shipments in Q4 of 2011.

Motorola estimates it shifted 10.5 million mobile phones in the three month period, around half of which (5.3 million) were smartphones such as the Motorola Razr, according to tech website Engadget.

Although the number of smartphones sold allegedly increased from 4.8 million in Q3, the overall mobile phone shipments number was said to have dropped from 11.6 million, suggesting a sizeable portion of new smartphone buyers upgrading from feature phones are flocking to competitor offerings.

Motorola estimates its profits from Q4 will be around the $3.4 billion mark.

The end of 2011 say Motorola dominate the news, but not because of its smartphones. Google announced it would be acquiring Motorola for $12.5 billion.

'Early 2012' is when the acquisition is expected to complete.

Compared with Samsung's estimated shipment forecast of 35 million units, Motorola has a lot of work to do, even with the Big G on its side. Bar the Defy and the brilliant new Razr, the company hasn't really released anything of note for a year.

Hopefully 2012 will see a rejuvenation of its smartphone and mobile phone portfolio, as the Razr demonstrated design nouse in spades.