Motorola (NYSE: MOT) reported first quarter earnings today, posting a $291 million loss, or $0.13 a share, while sales at its struggling cellphone unit plunged 45 percent, compared to a year ago. According to Bloomberg, the loss, however, was smaller than analyst forecasts, with job cuts helping to offset falling handset sales. Stripping out severance and other costs, Motorola’s loss was $0.08 cents, compared with the average analyst estimate of $0.10 a share. Motorola’s sales of $5.4 billion in the first quarter, however, missed forecasts $5.62 billion. Handset sales were $1.8 billion in the first quarter. But Motorola was just able to retain its position as the fourth largest global handset maker, just ahead of Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC). after it shipped 14.7 million handsets in the first quarter, which by its estimates gave it a 6 percent share of the global market. Operating loss at the mobile unit was $509 million. While wider than its loss of $418 million in the first quarter a year ago, it was smaller than the $595 million loss of the fourth quarter.

In disappointing news, Motorola co-CEO and head of its mobile unit Sanjay Jha said in a statement that the company planned to have “differentiated Android-based devices” in stores in time for 2009’s holiday season. While Motorola has said in the past they were hoping to get new devices out by the second half of 2009, this is the tail end of it. The company also reported that it has increased the 2009 annual cost reduction target to more than $1.3 billion.

Release | Presentation | Webcast

Other Earnings Highlights

—Home and Networks Mobility: Sales fell 16 percent to $2 billion, compared to a year ago.

—Enterprise Mobility Solutions: Sales were down 11 percent to $1.6 billion, compared to a year ago.

• Earnings: Motorola Posts $3.6 Billion Loss; Mobile Devices Sales Plummet
• Earnings: Motorola Reports Net Loss; Handset Sales Down; Spinoff Delayed