Motorola's comeback attempt rests on software
Motorola, the iconic mobile phone company once known for flashy hardware, is pinning its comeback hopes on the quality of its software.
Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha wouldn't go as far to say that Motorola is unconcerned with hardware these days, hours after unveiling the forthcoming Motorola Cliq at Mobilize 2009, but the balance has clearly changed with the introduction of Motoblur, a layer of software that sits above the Android operating system and will coordinate incoming messages and news feeds on future Motorola handsets.
Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha holds the Cliq Thursday, a device that Motorola designed with software first in mind.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)"Motoblur is going to become very important to Motorola," Jha said. It's actually more than just software--Motorola is also essentially hosting an online service that will deliver Facebook updates and RSS feeds to individual phones--but it's emblematic of the shift towards software and the Internet as the main features in a modern mobile phone.
Unfortunately for Motorola, that era began more than two years ago with the launch of the iPhone, and the company has been struggling ever since. In the pre-iPhone era, Motorola was a hit with sleek phones like the Razr that turned heads, but after people started to realize what they could do with sophisticated phone software constantly connected to the Internet, the Razr became an afterthought. Motorola has struggled ever since, seriously considering getting out of the phone business altogether.
Jha declared a year ago that Motorola was going to focus on two operating systems: Android and Windows Mobile. With Windows Mobile development falling further and further behind its rivals, it has turned to Android for the Cliq, the first smartphone it has launched in some time that has a realistic chance of competing in the modern market.
Unlike the G1 and Ion--perhaps the best known Android phones at the moment--the Cliq features a Motorola-designed home page that allows users to see a flood of notifications from things like social-networking applications, news feeds, and the standard voice calls, text messages, and e-mails. It invites comparisons to Palm's WebOS and Synergy software, with users selecting different widgets from a home page to rotate in and out of Facebook, Google Maps, e-mail, or voicemail.
Motorola designed nearly all of Motoblur, and it has been in the works since 2007, according to Business Week. It struck up a partnership with Google and Android because it realized Google could do a much better job of coordinating third-party software developers and application sales than Motorola could do on its own, Jha said.
It's not just Motorola who will get to play with Motoblur, either: outside developers will also be able to get their hands on Motoblur with the eventual release of APIs for the software, Jha told Infoworld. This could potentially complicate matters with Google and Android, but Jha insisted in our interview that Motorola will be very careful not to fragment Android with incompatibilities.
Whether or not people respond to Motorola's social-networking marketing strategy with the Cliq, Motoblur will be the underpinning for a series of phones tailored to different types of users, Jha said. Motorola is betting the company--or at least the mobile division--on its own blend of software and online services spread across a series of phones, rather than trying to mimic Apple's approach in producing one phone for everyone.
Will it work? Without knowing key details like price and performance at this early date, it's hard to say whether the Cliq will be enough of a success to rekindle interest in Motorola. Jha declined to comment on pricing, indicating that decision rests with exclusive U.S. partner T-Mobile. He did hint that pricing for the Cliq would be "creative," letting it rest with that statement.
The other big question is whether Motorola is committed to the mobile business at the corporate level for the long haul. Jha said that it was, although he cautioned that things could change in the future. At the moment, it probably doesn't matter, since Motorola likely can't find a buyer for its mobile business in its current condition and will need a series of hits in order to make the property interesting to outside investors again.
Motorola's efforts on the software front over the last several years have lagged that of the competition. It could be argued that the poor software on the Rokr--an iTunes phone that was overshadowed at its own launch event in 2005--spurred Apple's development of the iPhone and the reinvention of what it means to be a smartphone.
Jha seemed confident that the company has turned a corner. "Experiences matter a lot more as we go to the mobile Internet," he said, in comparison to the flashy hardware for which Motorola had become known.
However, Motorola said essentially the same thing in 2006 and in 2007, and has nothing to show for it. Three years later, the world is now a very different place.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
The biggest question is whether or not senior management is willing to adapt to a new playing field. There is always a chance they can come back (heck, Apple started from nowhere two years ago). Their biggest roadblocks are internal: business practices and corporate culture issues that start at the very top. They have plenty of smart engineers to build the hardware, etc.
My Nextel i730 fell into a pool; I had to dive to the bottom of the 9 feet deep pool floor to get it; dried it out in the sun for 2 days and still works every day for me. Your comments are BS and you are an idiot.
Motorola is still a big name in the U.S., and coming out with an Android phone now, is timely, not late.
Only HTC beat them here, and thats great for HTC....they were relatively unknown, if you ask me, but the year in the market with Android...by themselves, helped them a lot, but now, the competition has been joined....I expect Motorola to do even better than HTC.
but still i hope the hardware was bit better designed
putting a d-pad or a scroll ball on the front would have been simplified things a lot !
Police agencies all over the world use their equipment.
They build cell tower equipment used world wide.
They invented the whole cell phone concept in the 60s and borught it to market after they perfected it by developing software and hardware to make it reality.
Your silly bashing at this stage is stupid and shows you are ignorant
They invented the iDen Nextel system and ask any volunteer fireman or cop if that system is "junk"
People are so damn stupid...
I don't think hardware with Motorola phones was ever really an issue. I accidentally dropped an old Motorola that I had years ago (old TDMA phone) in a bucket of water and after it dried out it still worked fine. Also, since that phone I haven't had a phone with the same call/sound quality. I dropped a LG VX8300 in a small puddle and that phone died instantly.
I think for many of us in the US that have used Verizon for the last 4 or 5 years have gotten kind of sick of them forcing crappy software on these phones. That in itself makes the phones a turnoff (all of them, not just Moto).
Now, that of course means that Motorola's in a tough spot with Verizon as they force their hand with every hardware vendor. Verizon still provides the best network coverage in the US so they unfortunately still have to deal with them.
I think Android could help Motorola crossing the barrier of "is this a business or a consumer type device". They just need to work on getting the wireless providers to not degrade the device.
Moto must have the same people naming stuff as Microsoft. It's impossible to get a clue what their products do from the name.
So essentially they're a one hit wonder... and they've run out of creative ways to spell Razar, Krzar etc...
And they're hoping Google Android can save them, which is stupid... why would you put all your money on something you have absolutely no control over?
That's why RIM and Apple are so successful, you can't just slap a vanilla version of someone else's OS on your hardware and expect it to be a winner. Consumers are smarter than that... I look at any device with Windows Mobile, a Cell Radio CDMA/GSM, Wifi, GPS and to me they're all the same... same with Android. RIM and Apple both have different selling points.
RIM is the absolute undisputed KING of email they run their own data centres to ensure emails are delivered....the corporate world loves them because they are reliable.
Apple is the King of usability... they have a phone that does all the basics well and that's what consumers want. I've seen 50 year old grand mothers on the subway with an iPhone... if you can get your grand mother to buy a gadget you've done a pretty dam good job.
They aren't adding any value to the product... this isn't like a car where all cars have 4 wheels, air bags, an engine and transmission and the only thing separating them is how good the body/interior looks.
- by libertyforall1776 September 14, 2009 9:16 AM PDT
- MOT has to buy Palm, that's the only comeback I see possible at this point...
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