Motorola CEO announces new phones, digital TV boxes

San Francisco (IDGNS) - Motorola Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ed Zander rode onto stage Monday for his keynote speech at the International Consumer Electronics Show on a bike armed with one of the company's new products, a mobile handset battery recharger.

It's part of the company's plan to hook the developing world on mobile phones: sell them cheap handsets and solve their power problems with a recharger they can use while riding a bike to the market, or work.

"There are 500 million cyclists in China," he said, pointing out one of the company's target markets.

And he didn't stop there. After a strong introduction, Zander shifted into overdrive, announcing a slew of new products and several deals, including one to put new Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) Go for Mobile 2.0 mobile software on Motorola handsets.

It was a far cry from the Motorola seen last week, the one that saw its stock tumble nearly 8 percent after it announced fourth quarter sales wouldn't be as rosy as expected. The Schaumburg, Illinois, company said last Thursday that its fourth quarter sales will fall about US$200 million short of its previous guidance.

But on Monday, the company gave people something new to talk about, several new handset models, a new online music initiative, mobile e-mail service that syncs with Microsoft Outlook and new digital cable set-top boxes.