Motorola may have gotten an early Christmas present from rival cell phone manufacturer, Samsung. The Korean manufacturer reported that its fourth quarter profits were lower than expected, hurt by the recent price war with Finnish rival Nokia. It had been slow to beef up its portfolio in time for the holiday shopping season, giving Motorola's newest phones an edge.

Motorola RAZR V3 More Photos Read Review View Specs

Motorola V265 More Photos Read Review View Specs

But more important to Motorola, which doesn't compete on price, Samsung has lost favor among carriers, who demand a constant flow of new features to keep consumer interest high.

In the fourth quarter alone, Motorola released 20 feature packed phones worldwide, in an aggressive attempt to capture market share. And at the top, the heavily marketed RAZR V3.

Analysts said that publicity has helped draw consumers to Motorola's overall portfolio, including more affordable models such as the V265; featuring a camera, advanced speech recognition and the ability to download games.

Analysts have criticized Samsung's sluggishness in moving new phones to market. "We think Samsung will be plagued with problems until they get their new phones out," said American Technology Research analyst Albert Lin.

"Customers like Verizon are offering less Samsung," Lin said. "Samsung's problems are going to be something that ultimately helps Motorola and Nokia."

The change marks a reversal of Motorola's fortune, which just a year ago, stumbled to get camera phones to the market.

Motorola's share of the global handset market stood at 13.4 percent at the end of the third quarter, placing it third worldwide. Nokia, the market leader, had roughly 30.9 percent, while Samsung had 13.8 percent.