New York  - Weak cell phone sales dialed down first quarter sales and revenue at Motorola, the company reported Tuesday. But it predicted that a series of new phones, powered by Google's Android operating system, would turn its fortunes around later this year.

Motorola's net loss grew to 231 million dollars, compared to 194 million dollars a year ago. Sales slumped to 5.37 billion dollars compared to sales of 7.4 billion dollars last year.

The company's problems stem from its inability to come up with a successor to its hit Razr phone earlier in the decade.

It has also failed to get a foothold in the smartphone sector dominated the iPhone, Blackberries, and the increasingly popular Android-powered handsets. Motorola's handset sales in the first quarter plunged to 14.7 million units, down 23 per cent from the previous quarter.

Co-CEO Sanjay Jha said that Motorola's line of Android-powered smartphones would be in stores in time for the holiday season. He gave no details of the phones but said they would address the mid-to- high level smartphone marker with multimedia, messaging, Web browsing and mobility.

"Customer feedback on our smartphone roadmap remains very positive, and we plan to have differentiated Android-based devices in stores in time for the fourth-quarter holiday season," he said.