Motorola posted a whopping $3.6B in losses for the fourth quarter of 2008. The loss is attributed to the cell phone division, as all other Moto divisions saw profits. Moto also announced the departure of the company’s CFO for unexplained reasons. The dude just vanished.

But forget about disappearing CFOs. Motorola’s cell phone division needs help and cutting the already announced 7,000 jobs doesn’t look to be enough. LG passed Moto for the #3 spot in cell phone shipments. Moto did manage to ship the $2,000 Aura phone, so there’s one bright spot for them.

Word is Motorola will favor Android, which is cool. Rumor has it (from Moto) Windows Mobile 7 won’t be here until 2010 which means no one will be really interested in their WinMo phones until then. Android should prove to be an interesting filler if Moto can outfit it with a compelling device.

IBM showed off some impressive numbers yesterday despite slower Q4 revenue. The company posted $4.4 billion profit in Q4 of 2008 vs $4.0 billion for the same quarter in 2007; that is a 12% increase to you and me. The company is proving it’s move to higher margin product focus such as SaaS is paying more »

The Q4 smartphone analysis by Canalys adds some interesting perspective to the market. To the surprise of many, Apple is the #3 slot in global smartphone shipments. Nokia is still king of the heap, growing at a paltry 69% while RIM holds the #2 spot, growing 112%.

But here in North America, things are changing fast.