Comeback attempt Motorola relies on software
General Director of Motorola Sanjay Jha will not go so far that Motorola is unconcerned with hardware these days, hours after the opening of the upcoming Motorola Cliq to mobilize in 2009, but the balance has clearly changed with the introduction of Motoblur, software layer that sits above the operating system, Android, and also coordinate incoming messages and news feeds for future phones of Motorola.Â
“Motoblur will be very important to Motorola”, said Jha. It’s actually more than just software - Motorola also significantly hosting an online service that delivers the Facebook updates and RSS-feeds from individual telephones - but it symbolizes a transition to software and the Internet as the main features of modern mobile phones.
Unfortunately for Motorola, that the era began more than two years ago with the launch of iPhone, and the company is struggling ever since. In the pre-iPhone era, Motorola has become a hit with a sleek phones like the Razr, that turned my head, but after people started to realize that they can do this by using advanced software phone is constantly connected to the Internet, Razr has become an afterthought. Motorola has struggled with since seriously considering leaving the business phone in general.
Jha said a year ago that Motorola is going to focus on the two operating systems: Android and Windows Mobile. In Windows Mobile development, more and more of his rivals, he became the Android for Cliq, the first smartphone, he began at a time, which has a real chance to compete in today’s market.
In contrast to the G1 and Ion - perhaps the most famous Android phones at the moment - Cliq features Motorola designed home page that allows users to view the flow of notifications from things like social networking applications, news feeds, and standard voice calls, text messages e-mail. It offers a comparison WebOS palms and collaboration software, with users selecting different widgets from the home page to rotate in and out of Facebook, Google Maps, e-mail or voice mail.
Motorola developed almost all Motoblur, and she was in the works since 2007, according to Business Week. He struck up a partnership with Google Android, and because she did not understand, Google can do much better coordination of third-party software applications and sales than Motorola could do on its own, “said Jha.
It’s not just Motorola, which will play with Motoblur either: third-party developers can get their hands Motoblur with the possible release of API for software, Jha told InfoWorld. Potentially, this could complicate the situation and with Google Android, but Jha insists in this interview that Motorola will be very careful not to fragment with Android incompatibility.
Or not, people respond to social and Motorola’s network marketing strategy with the Cliq, Motoblur will be the basis for a series of phones, designed for different types of users, “said Jha. 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 the Apple approach in the production of one phone for all.
Will it work? Not knowing the key details such as price and performance in this early date, it is difficult to say whether Cliq will be successful enough to revive interest in Motorola. Jha declined to comment on pricing, saying that the decision is an exclusive partner of the U.S. T-Mobile. He did hint that the price of Cliq will be “creative”, giving the rest of that statement.
Another big question is whether Motorola is committed to the mobile business at the corporate level in the long term. Jha said that, although he warned that things can change in the future. At this point, it probably does not matter, as well as Motorola, probably can not find a buyer for its mobile business in its current condition and need a series of hits to make the property attractive to foreign investors again.
Motorola efforts on the software front over the past few years, which has lagged behind competitors. It could be argued that poor software Rokr - ITunes phone, which had prevailed in their own event dedicated to the creation in 2005 - triggered by Apple’s iPhone and rethinking what it means to be a smartphone.
Jha were confident that the company has turned a corner. “The experience issue much more as we go into the mobile Internet,” he said, compared with the screaming of equipment for which Motorola became known.
However, Motorola said virtually the same in 2006 and in 2007, and has nothing to show for it. Three years later, the world is different.
