Comments on: Motorola's struggle for survival

Motorola, the company that invented the cell phone, is on the brink of disaster, but can the company 'pull an Apple' and make a comeback?

[jasonlackey]

Hi Marguerite - first heard your name back in the day at Riverstone Networks doing Metro Ethernet/Carrier Ethernet.

Anyway, Moto has some significant challenges ahead. They have some great technology and build some very solid phones. The Razr V3M I have as a personal phone survived a full wash cycle and half a dry cycle at the laundromat before I was smart enough to figure out that driers are not supposed to go "kaTHUNK kaTHUNK kaTHUNK." The phone still works and in many ways is a better phone than many of the smartphones that I get to play with as Demo Tsar at InnoPath (fun job, BTW). However, it is time for them to move on and I reckon that Android is probably a good way to do it but not an entirely risk free path.

A more risk free path would be to do Symbian/S60 and in ways it would have been easier to understand ditching UIQ for S60 for the UI but I am not driving that bus...

Back to Android, from what I have seen on my TMobile G1, Android is a damn fine stack. The G1 is a nice, responsive phone. The UI, while not perfect, is in ways more intuitive than things like Symbian/S60 as one might find on many Nokia devices. For the most part, the UI looks nice - slick/professional. There are some rough edges, particularly with regards to exactly how the touch screen behaves, but for a first phone on a new platform it really is pretty good and I suspect with the big dogs like Moto jumping into the pool that things will only get better. I just hope that someone figures out that regardless of religion that it really would be nice to have ActiveSync (so you can hook up the phone to your corporate Exchange Server) and Office support on a device, which would then start to be pretty compelling in corporate land.

[jalderwood]

I remember back in college when I bought my first cell phone, a Motorola StarTAC. Although it was durable (except for the tip of the antenna) I grew to hate the phone due to its poor UI and slowness. Several years later, out of school, I thought I'd try again with another of their phones because it was free with the plan. Disappointed again - basically the same crap repackaged. I definitely avoided the RAZR without even looking at it. It's like they never understood that the guts were important.

This CNET article reveals their upcoming strategy to use Android on their low end smartphones and Windows Mobile on the better ones. Another misstep in my opinion. I never thought I would buy into the network-centric app idea - but slowly almost all of my personal data has migrated online. I use Google and their apps for everything nowadays, and I can't wait to take it with me (via Android). What other company provides such a tightly integrated productivity suite, along with all your data, that goes anywhere the network goes. (For free.) So for Motorola to relegate their Android phones to the lower tier just boggles me. I haven't bought the HTC G1 because it's not the hardware I want. Will anyone come out with a super duper $400 G-handset that does everything? I will avoid Microsoft-powered anything, at all costs.

If Google can one-off a quality handset (rumored) and HTC makes quality stuff (the Dream is quality, just not what I want) Motorola should be able to do the same. Contrary to industry-think, I think using a third party OS will be great for the handset market. Instead of being limited in software quality and functionality (e.g. LG NV2), these handset makers can begin looking at what people are doing with their phones... and design accordingly.

[P_Zed]

MOTO's problem is that the handset market is just too competitive, and Motorola has never been able to keep up with the product innovation cycles that kind of market demands. A Nokia or Samsung can come up with a new trick (or a whole new phone) and take it from concept to hardware selling on the street in a matter of a couple months if they want.

Motorola on the other hand has been used to making products that take years to develop, years to bring to market and once they go on sale, they stay there dominating for years. Competing in the modern phone arena is just going to be a disaster for them.

They DO still make really good two-way radios which do indeed dominate the market and it's one area where the company still has the luxury of long-term product development cycles and it's also very profitable for the company. Everybody else making two-way uses Motorola gear as the benchmark and most of them fail to hit it. Moto simply owns it.

What they may have to do is just bail out of the handset war, focus on two-way and IC and patents and yes, end up being a much smaller company.

That said, I do think it's a great idea to run with Android. Moto has never been any good at UI, not even on their two-way software. RSS was clearly designed for engineers by engineers. Using Android may let others shoulder the burden of making the phones usable.

[markredf150]

gosh i remember the days when moto brought out the razr for the first time and how big a shockwave it sent through the cell phone market. it was great for consumers but probably bad for moto that the razr went from being a $500 super thin, exclusive, top-of-the-line cell phone to a buy-one-get-three-free-everybody-has-one-phone. what i thought was annoying is when the krzr came out. the razr2 is a nice piece as well, it just feels too delicate. and all the other longer, cheap, pay-as-you-go phones that pay homage to the razr look stupid. it's almost as if moto just rested on their laurels and designed everything a-la-razr. and the Q smartphones are okay, but windows mobile is the worst part of it. i'm really hoping moto gets back in the game. their nextel phones are amazing though, i gotta say

[yacahuma]

The G1 still no iphone. Motorola still have a chance. Develop an iphone clone with android. The G1 is too big and lacks the sexiness of the iphone. My gripes about the iphone, Extremely low speakers(in and out). and no copy-paste. This is typical of apple that will do something just the way they like it and dont pay too much attention to the consumer, if they dont like what you have to say.

The other part will be harder, compete with the amount of application already at Apple Store. Is amazing how much have been done in so little time.

At the end , companies competing against the iphone, will not be able to do it alone.

For the other part, they deserve to be were they are. For years we have been force fed, stupid phones with windows mobile. Windows mobile is pure junk just like many other MS products. With the iphone, we can know do (almost) all we want with our phones.

[maverick_nick]

My last three phones, including my current Q9h have been Motorolas. I think that they have the potential to build brilliant devices, but they spend too much time and energy concentrating on the low end of the market where you have to make very high volume sales. So in essense, I'm saying that Motorola has too many phones. All they need is two phones. A highend phone similar to the iPhone - asthetics is everything - running Windows Mobile, and a more affordable phone that caters for the mass market running Android. It seems like they're doing this, but if the device isn't attractive then it won't sell no matter how good the software is.

Companies shouldn't be afraid to copy and improve on existing products. I'm holding thumbs and hoping that my next phone which is going to be a Windows Mobile 7 phone will be a Motorola device.

[Canberra-photographer]

Motorola has sure being trying and one must not forget the innovative efforts they tried. Everyone knows about Nokia's music service, how many remember that Moto had one first. Motorola also releases the Rokr, the only 3rd party device to support iTunes music which is no small achievement given Apple's control freakishness. But for all the innovation, Motorola is let down by a lack of marketing savvy, a lack of design and lack on consumer understanding.

[jhawk95]

Whatever! You can't win long-term on marketing $hit. Just ask Microsoft. You can throw all the money on advertising you want and on dressing up a pile of $hit, but at the end of the day it is still a pile of $hit and still stinks.

If Motorola wants to remain a successful company in the handset market and wants to remain one of the big players, they better get to INNOVATING some new products soon and stop trying to be one of these "ME TOO" companies that will all be left behind.

[eightwings]

Great article even if somewhat depressing to Motorola fans. The cell phone business has gotten a little too crowded and competitive, in my opinion. However, there is still a lot of money to be made through innovation. The trend is clearly toward more powerful features and lower energy consumption. What this means is that manufacturers will be looking for new powerful multicore processors that use even less energy than the current crop. This is where Motorola should invest its R&D money, in my opinion. If it can come up with the next gen chip set that everybody wants, it won't even have to make its own handsets. Just license the IP to the other players and lean back while the money comes rolling in. Besides, the right, low-power multicore processor will find a market everywhere, not just the handset business.

The multicore crisis is an unprecedented opportunity for troubled companies like Motorola and others to leapfrog over their competitors and make a killing. There is a good way and a bad way to do it. Click on the following link to find out more:

How to Solve the Parallel Programming Crisis:
http://rebelscience.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-solve-parallel-programming.html

[palonekedward]

Mortorola was a great company in its eartly years. They were way ahead in the cell phone market share, then got complacement...they didn't have a decent cell phone for years. They finally came out with the Razer...but couldn't follow it up with anything else. They should get rid of their current new development staff and hire some young talent who understands the younger buyers.

[kbox1]

Mot has been successful in handsets but their market share and profitability has been on a decline ever since the market evolved and competition entered. Their 2-way radio success is largely due to the volumes being relatively low ie not attracting competition and they have the PA technology/design needed.....LDMOS.
I agree other biz units of Mot are strong market players. They have known for a few years now that they were too slow to compete and needed to get out BUT when you are talking about a market that represents the highest volumes of ANYTHING electronic, and they have to displace their sales of handsets with something else(and quick!!) it becomes too difficult to pull the trigger! At best they will partner or bail but they need to do it NOW!

[AlexRoz]

With all due respect for Mr. Jha, hiring a new "co-CEO" is like trying to sprinkle a "magic powder" to fertilize dry soil to start growing crops.

Motorola (and others) must completely reform its management structure and the board. Studying successful corporations elsewhere may yield some clues. Sony's and Nokia's do not pay millions to their executives, do not appoint retired CEO's from unrelated industries to their boards and do allow employees to have a real voice in how the corporation should be run.

Perhaps there is something to be learned from them...