Motorola announced another loss-making quarter, although sales of its mobile devices increased off the back of growth in international markets.

During the period, the company shipped 11.6 million mobile devices, including 4.8 million smartphones – this compares with 9.1 million handsets, including 3.8 million smartphones, in the year-ago quarter. During the period, the company also shipped an uninspiring 100,000 Xoom tablets.

The figures show that the company is ahead of fellow recovering vendor Sony Ericsson in terms of total device shipments (in Q3 2011 the Swedish/Japanese vendor shipped 9.5 million units), but lagging in smartphone sales. Sony Ericsson said that 80 percent of its sales are now smartphones, compared with 41 percent for Motorola.

Operating highlights in the period included the launch of the company’s flagship RAZR smartphone (pictured), and the start of sales of its Droid Bionic LTE smartphone for Verizon Wireless.

Motorola reported a third quarter net loss of US$32 million, down from US$34 million in 2010, on revenue of US$3.26 billion, up 11 percent from US$2.95 billion. For its Mobile Devices business, there was a GAAP operating loss of US$41 million, compared with a prior-year loss of US$43 million, on revenue of US$2.43 billion, up 20 percent from US$2.03 billion.

The company said that it will hold a special meeting of stockholders on 17 November 2011, to seek approval of its proposed merger with Google.

The transaction will also require regulatory approval in the US, by the European Commission, and in Canada, China, Israel, Russia, Taiwan and Turkey. Filings have been submitted in each market, with the US Department of Justice having already made a request for additional information.

Subject to meeting its closing conditions, the deal is expected to close by the end of 2011 or early 2012.