Motorola Inc. is considering the separation of its mobile device business from its other operations.

The handset maker's new strategy is focused on recapturing global market leadership. It's still the leading mobile phone manufacturer in the United States and strongly positioned in Latin America, but needs to enter new territories to boost revenues.

"In this industry you have to have global scale, it is very hard to depend on two regions for profitability," said Bonny Joy, analyst for Strategy Analytics, Boston. "Focusing on these two regions would not provide the scalability to maintain sustainable revenue and shipment growth."

Last year Motorola was outpaced by successful new products from rivals Samsung and Nokia. Its profit fell 84 percent, handset sales were down 38 percent and its share of the world handset market continues to fall after being reduced by nearly half since hitting 22.4 percent at the end of 2006.

Motorola had a 12.4 percent global share of the handset market last quarter, down from 22.4 percent in the year-ago period. It shipped just under 41 million handsets. Its failure to replicate past success with the Razr model is the main reason for the drop.

Mr. Joy said that Motorola needs to improve its 3G portfolio, which pales in comparison to Nokia's N series or Samsung's ultra edition 2 lineup. It also needs to allocate handsets into markets such as India, China and Western Europe to gain market share.

Chinese telecoms firms ZTE and Huawei may be among those to take an interest if Motorola decides to sell or split its handset operation. But this may not be enough to save the company, according to Mr. Joy.

"Some of their problems are deep-rooted in product designing and commercialization, and any third party must bring these aspects of the business to convert Motorola to profitability," Mr. Joy said. "Right now we do not think Chinese OEMs are positioned to do this."

Motorola is a provider of wireless and broadband communications technology. It provides home television set-top boxes and modems and computing and communications equipment to businesses, in addition to mobile phones.

The company's two smaller businesses include home and network mobility solutions. A spinoff or outright sale of its mobile business doesn't necessarily convert into an opportunity, warns Mr. Joy.

When a business is trending downward in the handset industry, it's hard to convert it to a success. Take Siemens, for example.

"This industry has a long list of failed partnerships, most notably, BenQ's takeover and liquidation of Siemens Mobile, once a leading player in the global handset market," Mr. Joy said.