Motorola Solutions Inc. released their second quarter report, which was higher than analysts expected it to be.  Net income from continuing operation was $58 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with a net income of $3 million, or 1 cent per share, in the prior-year quarter.  Quarterly total revenue was just over $2 million, up 6.1% year-over-year, while their quarterly gross margin was 50.6% compared with 49.8% in the prior year.

The second-quarter operating income was $170 million, up 5.6% year-over-year. Motorola’s quarterly operating margin came in at 8.3%, remaining the same year-over-year. At the end of the second quarter of 2011, Motorola Solutions had $6,655 million of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, compared with $8,933 million at the end of fiscal 2010.

“In the second quarter, Mobile Devices launched several new smartphones in the U.S. and markets around the world. Revenues grew over 40 percent driven largely by Latin America and China where sales more than doubled year over year. Our Home business delivered another strong performance, and we introduced several innovative products and services for next generation multi-screen video solutions,” Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive officer, Motorola Mobility said in a statement.

“With a focus on profitable growth and delivering differentiated LTE smartphones and tablets, we expect to achieve profitability in Mobile Devices in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2011.

Motorola is also set into repurchasing $2 billion of its shares and begin paying a dividend after selling its networks unit and cutting debt.  The company will start paying a quarterly payout of 22 cents a share in October.

Chief Executive Officer Greg Brown said in an interview this month that returning capital to shareholders was a “priority” after the company sold its networks business to Nokia Siemens Networks for $975 million and reduced its debt by $540 million this year.

Cash reserves after the dividend and buyback are accounted for “still allow us very good strategic flexibility and firepower,” Brown said.

Motorola is preparing to launch the Motorola Atrix 4G Android smartphone for U.S. wireless carrier AT&T which features a 720p HD display with a 720 X 1280 resolution.  There’s no more fingerprint scanner for biometrics security, but it does come with an improved 8-megapixel 1080p HD digital and video camera, along with a new version of MOTO BLUR and also an HDMI output port.  But their slow release on smartphones and tablets may cause their 3Q to hit a bit of a downfall as it will coincide with the release of the new iPhone 5.  It would’ve been better if Motorola’s devices have a few months gap with Apple’s release.

“It would have been nice if Motorola had a clear window prior to the release of the new iPhone,” said CL King analyst Lawrence Harris.

Timing is really crucial when it comes to technology but if the device you launch trumps expectations, no matter how awesome competition is in terms of aesthetics, content always trumps aesthetics, just like brains over beauty.  One can easily get caught up with the ‘bling’ of things but as they say, not all that glitters is gold.