Profits may elude mobile challengers

The revolution in consumer electronics touched off by Apple is bringing some unlikely names to the fore in the business of phones and other hardware. But the chance that the newcomers will have any better luck than the old guard that is now in retreat still looks like a long shot.

Google’s completion of its Motorola Mobility purchase, and Research In Motion’s disclosure that it has hired bankers to consider its financial options are the latest headlines to underline this change. The names that once led the upper end of the handset business have been eclipsed with remarkable speed in the five years since the arrival of the iPhone. RIM, Motorola and Nokia, which is burning cash fast, have shown how inhospitable the hardware world can be when changing fashions and falling volumes expose the high fixed costs of the incumbents. The new kids on the block bear unlikely names: Google, Amazon and, showing sporadic signs of interest, Microsoft. Facebook is at an earlier stage in its development as it looks to follow its users beyond the PC, but if persistent reports of a “Facebook phone” are anything to go by, it could eventually follow.