NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A warning from Motorola spooked investors Monday, sending its stock tumbling and the Nasdaq composite down more than 1 percent in sympathy.

Motorola is an important company to watch in the technology sector because of its diversity: It is the No. 2 maker of cell phones and a leading manufacturer of semiconductors and high-speed telecom equipment.

But Motorola's bad news shouldn't be a major cause for concern for the rest of the tech sector going forward, mainly because the warning was not really a big surprise to people who follow the company.

"It's Motorola. They've been habitual offenders when it comes to earnings warnings," said Ted Parrish, co-manager of the Henssler Equity fund. Parrish said he sold off his stake in Motorola last year because of continued weakness in its semiconductor business.

Last fall, Motorola issued two sales and earnings warnings for its fourth quarter in less than two months. The company also lowered revenue and profit targets for 2003 as well.

Despite those warnings, there was a sense that the company's projections for 2003 were still too high.

"From the day Motorola put their guidance out, you just looked at the numbers and said, 'No way.' They overpromised," said Greg Gorbatenko, an analyst with Loop Capital Markets.

Motorola told Wall Street on Monday that it now expects sales of $6 billion to $6.2 billion for its second quarter, as opposed to earlier guidance of $6.4 billion to $6.6 billion. And the company is now predicting breakeven results, excluding charges, compared to an initial forecast of a profit of 3 cents to 5 cents a share.

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Asia was one of the main reasons Motorola cited for its warning. The company said that handset and semiconductor sales were affected by SARS.

That didn't sit well with investors, especially since Intel, the No. 1 chipmaker, reported in a conference call last week that SARS was not having a major impact on its results. Loop Capital's Gorbatenko joked that Motorola could blame monkeypox for poor results in the current quarter, too, since there was a case reported in Illinois, where Motorola is based.

Investors in Nokia, Motorola's main rival in the handset business, shrugged off the warning. Shares of Nokia gained 1 percent Monday ahead of the Finnish cell phone maker's mid-quarter update scheduled for Tuesday morning.

James Faucette, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, said Nokia doesn't have nearly as much exposure to Asia as Motorola does. In addition to SARS, Motorola also said cell phone sales are being hurt by an inventory buildup by local manufacturers in Asia, particularly in China. So Nokia's sales and earnings won't be hit materially by problems in Asia, he said.

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What's more, a study by tech research firm Gartner showed last week that Nokia continues to enjoy a huge lead in the cell phone business, with 35 percent market share worldwide compared with 14.7 percent for Motorola.

Simply put, Motorola's warning can be brushed off more easily because it is not one of the companies that have led the tech rally. Before Monday's drop, the stock was only up 3.3 percent year-to-date, compared to the Nasdaq's surge of about 22 percent.

It's not as if Wall Street had high hopes to begin with for Motorola.

Analysts quoted in this story do not own shares of Motorola or Nokia and their firms have no investment banking relationship with the companies.