Reports: Motorola reorganizes mobile-phone business

Motorola has reportedly reorganized its struggling mobile-phone business in anticipation of plans to spin it off into a separate publicly traded entity.

Rob Shaddock

(Credit: Motorola)

Although Motorola, at press time, had not yet put out a statement on the changes, they appear aimed at developing products more quickly in response to consumer demands, according to reports by Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.

Motorola has reportedly combined two categories of phones, mid/high-tier feature phones and multimedia phones, into a single segment, according to the Tribune. And among a group of executives named, Rob Shaddock, a senior vice president of mobile devices, was named head of consumer products, according to the Journal and Reuters. The Journal added that John Cipolla was promoted to senior vice president for mid- to high-tier products; Steve Lalla will oversee teams focused on mass-market phones; and Todd DeYoung "was given responsibility for ensuring the company's cell phones match its overarching strategy and are being directed at the right market."

Motorola has seen its handset market share plummet, mostly due to a lack of compelling new products. In January, amid pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, the company said it would consider separating its handset business from the rest of the company in an effort to increase shareholder value and revive the struggling business. Late last month it officially announced the plan and has since announced a round of layoffs.

[Galaxy5]

They rearranged the deck chairs on Titanic, too

Motorola should:

Hire usability experts to design the OS - then let the
programmers loose.

Focus on doing what no one else is doing.

Fire most of their middle managers, marketing dweebs, and
division chiefs.

Do away with bonuses for anyone making more than
$120k/year.

That should get them positioned to recover.

[zeth006]

Ummm...NO

Do you know what you're talking about? Marketing of the product is just about as important as the beauty and user-friendliness of the product itself! Case in point? Ipod.

As for the executive pay issues...you're trying to fight a tsunami with an umbrella. American CEOs traditionally make more on average than their overseas counterparts.

Motorola just needs to continue marketing its brand name awareness in America and abroad and also churn out more new products. Since companies like Dell and Google seem to be forecasting a strong growth in smartphones, Motorola needs to strengthen its presence in this segment.

But bottom-line: If people can grow to recognize Motorola as a quality brand name mobile phone maker, Motorola should do fine.