Newsmaker: Putting the 'motor' in Motorola

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Any thoughts on NSA (the National Security Administration, whose domestic eavesdropping program has provoked a political firestorm)? You're in that business, and it's a really sensitive time right now.
Zander: I think security and personal privacy are important. But, I mean, I think about micropayments on these things (holding up a cell phone). Every time I give my credit card to an operator on the phone to buy my wife something, I wonder where that credit card number goes to.

I remember we used to say at Sun, "Your mailbox is the nonsecurest thing you have." It's on the street somewhere, and if somebody is looking at your bill, you wouldn't know it.

(The Razr) got the employees in all of our divisions thinking we could be hot again.

Seeing what happened over here the last few years and traveling around the world, we're still in danger. It goes back to the fingerprint thing at the airports. I'm just speaking for myself right now: I'll get my fingerprint tomorrow to check in, if I don't have to go through the security gates. But I understand some liberties, and I understand we as Americans have had a great democracy based on the fact that we do have privacy and we do have the protection of rights here. There's got to be a balance somewhere.

Our readers like talk about the Razr. It's the most searched-for phone on our site, the most read review on our site. What do you think the Razr has meant for Motorola?
Zander: It did a couple of things. First of all, inside Motorola, I think it got the employees in all of our divisions thinking we could be hot again. This company is 75 years old. We built the first car radio. We built some of the first remote controls for television. People on the moon communicated with Motorola technology. People in World War II in the battlefield used Motorola technology. But we had to prove to ourselves that we could innovate again.

But we're keeping a perspective. We've got to keep innovating. We've got some great stuff coming up the second half of this year. For China, we've got the low-end devices, for India we've got 3G. In Europe, we've got Slvr, which is going big.

One mystery in the industry is how you managed to be a licensee of Apple. How did you do that, when nobody else has been able to?
Zander: Very hard.

Did you have to sit down with Steve (Jobs), or did he come to you?
Zander: No, no, no, we go there. I've known Steve a long time. What happened was I got here in 2004, and he was nice enough to call and congratulate me. Steve and I worked together when I was at Sun. We did some things when he was at Next. We used to shoot the breeze about the industry. He was going great guns with the iPod, and I said, "I should show him these devices (holding up a cell phone) and show him what we can do with these devices." We talked and said, "Let's try iTunes on these devices."

It got difficult because, certainly, Apple has got a hardware business. It was in terms of how many song restrictions and what kind of capabilities.

We are with Cingular now selling this (holding up a Motorola Slvr phone) with iTunes on it. We have other music players from around the world, depending on what the carrier wants.

Do you think Apple can make a difference in the user interface on phones, the way they did with MP3 players?
Zander: I don't know, I don't know. I can't pass judgments because different carriers have their own different interfaces. I think others (hardware manufacturers) are going to enter it, not just the one you mentioned.  

More Newsmakers

A hip Motorola

I thought Motarola was hip when RAZR came out. I bought a Moto
mobile phone and discovered that the most important software
feature on their phone, the list of contacts, simply sucks eggs. And
other software feature are far too difficult to maneuvre. While
Motorola still has some cash left, hire a crack programmer or two
and get them to develop a decent software interface.

[eeee]

learn some features

I have used frioend's Razr phones; learn some of the features in the menus. The menu system is customizable and robust if you are willing to survive the verbose manual downloadable from their web site.

[Blito]

Video Game probably safest for money

It's funny as the game Entropia Universe, which converts to real world money on demand (manually by Entropia team), is probably safer then all of this.

[Blito]

Too many standards is no standard art all

Too many standards is no standard art all. There is a certain point when too many standards isn't really a standard anymore because it is too much in flux. Standards are not defined that way.

We need interoperability in a new solid, clean, futuristic age. Not all of this dark age garbage.

DRM should be managed by non-profit like: as a standard for how files are shared.
I still see DRM as inhibiting rather then enabling.

If there are only 2 DRMs what would be the point. It wont happen and if it does it won't be called DRM.

China doesn't have too many of these DRM issues because the government forces companies to comply with interruptibility. Very sick that a communist country is doing better with freedom then America. People should be independent, like America likes, but not at the cause of other's freedom. There's a certain balance. The American government should force American companies to lessen DRM restrictions after passing the NET neutrality bill. If that doesn't work then, oh well, then just rely on open source hardware/software and forget the government.

[df561]

china doesn't have DRM issues????

of course not...have you checked their mp3 piracy rate? :)

Single standard for DRM

Agree, also look at how GSM (for mobile phones) accelerated the
European mobile phone makers past Motorola, when the GSM
network became the single standard. And how HD TV could come
out of its infighting if a single standard becomes adopted. And HVS
vs Betamax, etc. etc.

[booboo1243]

Spell Check?

You spelled Schaumburg wrong.

[knordahl]

Verizon/Moto Cartell

Calling the Q a smart phone may be inaccurate as the execs at Motorola have placed all sales of the device respectively in the hands of Verizon Wireless. In other words, if you have another provider or do not get Verizon service locally, you're completely out of luck. Wouldn't it be nice if the antitrust wars that brought an end to the limited service cell networks applied to the exclusivity agreements cell phone companies continue to establish with manufacturers?

[df561]

not for long

I'm sure it will be available for other carriers eventually (I'm currently on T-Mobile) however I'm still going to hold out for something else because I want WiFi - other than that the Q would have been perfect.

[eeee]

I agree 100% re exclusivity agreements

I hate Verizon but love Nextel for its superior voice quality and the efficient push to talk but cannot get this Q (yet) I am sure a Nextel version of the Q is in the works.
Then again, since it seems to have (so far) universal praise, I wonder if indeed it is "all that" or if some reviewers are just being snowed.