RAZR Burn
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 29, 2008 at 5:22 AM PT
The arduous task of reversing the ongoing collapse of Motorola’s post-Razr phone business will begin with thousands of layoffs and a big bet on Google’s Android mobile operating system.
Sanjay Jha, Motorola’s new co-chief executive and head of mobile devices, is expected to announce a major overhaul of the company’s cellphone division when it reports earnings Thursday. And sources close to the company say it will include a new round of job cuts and the jettisoning of four software platforms. This will leave Motorola with three supported platforms: Windows Mobile for high end smartphones, Android for midtier consumer devices and Motorola’s own P2K for low-end phones.
For Motorola (MOT), whose current device lineup includes too few popular phones running on too many different operating systems–six, to be exact–this winnowing down of supported platforms is a wise move. But it’s not going to do much to help the company hang on to its fast-declining market share position. To achieve that, Motorola needs a hit phone–or even a popular one. Other than the $2,000 Aura the company just introduced in the middle of a recession, that is.
Comments
Continuation of yesterdays hardware pricing…
I just purchased a $40 Motorola Tracfone at a retail store to replace my older Nokia soap bar. It looks functionally the same as the Razr phones still listed by Sprint at between $300 and $400. I think the differences are more about what features are exposed by the software (and carrier) than hardware.
I hope that by February when my Sprint contract runs out there are at least a couple of Androids to choose from and also hopefully a selection of carriers.
Maybe I’ll finally enter the twenty first century.
Posted by Mac Beach at October 29th, 2008 at 10:48 amMotorola has had such badly written software, I would never, ever buy one of their jokes they call phones ever again.
Their phone division head last year made an interesting comment in answer to a question about how they would compete with the iPhone, “We’re going to be boringly predictable.”
Nothing like guaranteeing success with so little effort!
Posted by Eric Welch at October 29th, 2008 at 1:23 pm