Insert Motorola "GONR" Joke Here

If Motorola were a Greek tragedy, we’d be at that point in the narrative where the company is just about to blind itself out of grief–with a pair of RAZRs, of course. Two reports issued today show an already grim scenario for Motorola growing markedly worse. The first, from MultiMedia Intelligence, shows the company’s share of the handset market in rapid decline, with Samsung and LG poised to surpass it. The second, from Thomas Weisel Partners, suggests Motorola’s 2008 and 2009 revenues will come in well below expectations. How far below? Analyst Matthew Sheerin cut his 2009 estimate for the company from a profit of three cents to a loss of 18 cents.

“We believe demand has deteriorated across most of the company’s core end-markets, with a particularly sharp slowdown in handsets, evidenced by a number of key supplier and competitor pre-announcements,” Sheerin wrote in a note to clients. “[The economic downturn] will make a recovery in the core handset business even more challenging and could accelerate cash burn.”

More ugly news for Motorola (MOT), which last week had its credit rating slashed to Junk by Standard & Poor’s.