Motorola To Cut 4,000 Jobs, Focus On High-End Devices 247
jfruh writes "Motorola Mobility is facing its first major public shakeup after its acquisition by Google and it's not pretty for many employees. The company will be laying off thousands of workers as it attempts to reorient itself away from feature phones and toward more profitable high-end devices."
Diminishing returns? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is there a race to the bottom in the sense that if all handset makers abandon the low-end market to focus on higher-margin smartphones, competition will increasingly erode those margins?
FWIW if I were making smartphones, the overriding lesson I would take from the iPhone is "make just one model". It's high risk, but selling phones seems to be about marketing first and technology second, so putting all your marketing muscle behind one model doesn't seem like a bad idea.
Nokia destroyed low end for others. (Score:4, Insightful)
Nokia destroyed low end for other players in global scale..
cheapest nokias are so cheap it's very hard to compete there. note that this was happening all last decade, siemens got ran to the ground.. sammys featurephones were in trouble most of the time. Motorola had an one off hit with the razr but that was their high point in featurephones.
if you can buy a 101 for twenty-thirty euros.. what's there to compete? it's a supply and least parts necessary game. it's still a big business though.
but you know what's funny? the smartphones we have today into which nobody has found any good features in couple of last years to tack on will be hundred bucks in couple of years. they're gonna have to come up with some really good gimmicks for the high end if they intend there to be a high end high margin market at all then.
Re:Nokia destroyed low end for others. (Score:5, Interesting)
Imagine a world where you get home, pop your cell phone into a doc and bang you're running your phone as a full desktop with all the cpu/memory power+some of your current giant 500 watt system sitting under your desk, but it still has a standby battery life of days and full usage of hours.
Then you feel like laying in bed and reading a book, you pop your phone out of the desktop doc and doc it in your 7-10" tablet device and bang you're running a tablet with all the same apps and data.
It is coming.
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The word you want is "dock". And yes, not even that far away -- the Asus PadFone [asus.com] shows a substantial chunk of the capabilities in question.
Re:Nokia destroyed low end for others. (Score:5, Interesting)
What I want is not a dock for my phone, but to have its screen be stretchable to adjust the resolution. Extend the canvas out for when you want that extra real estate, but collapse it back down when you want it to fit in your pocket.
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The limitations to human-facing computers is now the human interface. At this point, both input and output are in need of a significant technological leap. Only then will computing devices finish the miniaturization and unification that's the logical conclusion to the past century of technological progress. Until then, we'll continue to produce small devices that are portable but can't do much, and large devices that can do everything but are not portable at all.
The idea of a dock is merely a stopgap measur
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I was trying to use only current established or very near future tech. That would require something that isn't even in a mock up capability yet.
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I would want a system that's 100 times as powerful as my current desktop if it was available, so I'd just put 100 of these "superphone" processors in a case and have a nice desktop. And if you only browse the web and check email, the tech is pretty much there to replace your desktop with a phone anyway. You have HDMI out, and bluetooth keyboards and mice.
Re:Nokia destroyed low end for others. (Score:5, Interesting)
It is coming.
I have a different vision:
You get home and your smart phone is already synced to your full desktop/laptop, so anything you did on the phone all day is available on your desktop/laptop.
Then you are laying in bed with your tablet device, and it also is synced with your smart phone so you just start reading.
The advantages of this approach are:
1. When main device changes (in your example, the smartphone), all of your "docks" do not need to change.
2. High-power devices can stay high-power and low-power devices can stay low. Using your phone to edit high-def video would be murderous.
3. App and device manufacturers don't need to try and shoehorn their mobile OS and apps into a Desktop and vice versa.
4. Not everyone in your household needs to own a "main device", and all of your devices are available to use at the same time.
Disadvantages:
1. App and device manufacturers need to figure out a way to sync everything up.
2. Requires a network.
3. Individual devices may cost a bit more due to the need for a CPU in each.
In reality, I don't think the "brains" of a smart phone cost very much. I think far more cost is in the battery and screen. I think syncing is the way to go. It's a bit painful right now... even if you are 100% Apple not everything syncs. Google is great for keeping contacts, email, and calendars in sync. Firefox does a good job keeping browsers in sync. Amazon keeps all of your reading in sync. All of these companies are fighting for this space, and I don't really see many going for the route you envision.
Re:Nokia destroyed low end for others. (Score:5, Insightful)
Your vision is mostly here too, if you're willing to use Google services and Android.
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Imagine a world where you get home, pop your cell phone into a doc and bang you're running your phone as a full desktop with all the cpu/memory power+some of your current giant 500 watt system sitting under your desk, but it still has a standby battery life of days and full usage of hours.
Other than the insane battery requirement, I believe what you're looking for is Motorola's Webtop [wikipedia.org]
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except all the devices i mentioned are 90% identical except for form factor. You are sharing the 90% and getting the specific form factor to be perfect for the individual task as needed.
Endless possibilities. . . (Score:2)
Imagine a world where . . .
Given any thought to doing voice-overs for movie trailers? There's an opening. [wikipedia.org]
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Better Value for Money (Score:3, Interesting)
Is there a race to the bottom in the sense that if all handset makers abandon the low-end market to focus on higher-margin smartphones, competition will increasingly erode those margins?
FWIW if I were making smartphones, the overriding lesson I would take from the iPhone is "make just one model". It's high risk, but selling phones seems to be about marketing first and technology second, so putting all your marketing muscle behind one model doesn't seem like a bad idea.
First of the "race to the bottom" is a phrase used by those promoting Apple to give the illusion that competing products are of inferior quality, due to Apple able to charge a massive mark-up to their inferior products. What really happens is good old competition, and price is just one of the things Apple competitors are able to compete on. Its why the same market has phones with Projectors; Game Pads; Waterproofing; Digital TV Receivers; With a massive array of different sized screens; CPU's and Memory, hi
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The thing about the "high-end" market is that cost is less of an issue. If you're paying $800 for a smartphone or tablet, you want to make sure it does what you want. You're not desperate about saving $20 (if you are, you really shouldn't be spending $800 right now).
Re:Diminishing returns? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ugh - there is room in the market for phones that AREN'T cookie-cutter copies of each other. What if I want a smartphone with a small screen - nobody would call that a flagship phone so nobody would make that a single-product focus. How about a phone with a keyboard - most people don't want that, so nobody would make that their single product.
The whole point of Android is that you actually get a choice. I don't want that to be a choice of 3 vendors who all make phones designed to look just like an iPhone...
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What if I want a smartphone with a small screen
I think this includes a grand total of one smart phone - the Sony Ericsson Xperia [thephonedatabase.com]. Xperia also has a version with a slide-out keyboard if that's your thing
The market is so incredibly vibrant and diverse, that there is exactly one viable small-screen smartphone (that I know of).
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I must have seen about a half-dozen fairly small screen smartphones at the local T-Mobile store. They also have some with more of a Blackberry-like form factor (well, at least how Blackberry used to make them). However, it all depends on your definition of small/etc.
Bottom line is that variety is the spice of life, and I'd rather see more than less.
Re:Diminishing returns? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's high risk, but selling phones seems to be about marketing first and technology second, so putting all your marketing muscle behind one model doesn't seem like a bad idea.
I have to disagree. Phones aren't "one size fits all." Unfortunately, too many phones from too many manufactuyrers are the same. It's hard to find a flip phone with decent fetures and a good camera you can fit in a pants pocket any more, and that's the phone I'm looking for. I'm also looking for a phone that I don't have to install apps to listen to the radio on -- I should be able to stream it from their web sites, just like I can with my computer.
They still aren't selling the phone I want to buy, and the one I had closest to the one I want broke, and they stopped selling it. The new smartphones are all HUGE, and I just fucking hate it.
Marketing isn't going to get me to buy a phone that doesn't do what I want or fit in my pocket.
I like the fact that I can buy a small, cheap car with good mileage, or a damned Humvee if I want. I like that fact that there are more than one flavor of cheese. I like the fact that I can get many different flavors of Linux. I just can't fathom those who say "there are too many!!!! I can't choose!!!
Next time you go shopping for a phone, just tell the salesman to pick one for you!
Notice that Apple only makes one model of phone, and Samsung alone sells a lot more Androids than Apple sells iPhones (there's a slashdot story about that farther down on the front page)..
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Not enough time to evaluate all options (Score:2)
I just can't fathom those who say "there are too many!!!! I can't choose!!!
They don't have enough time to evaluate all the options, including which one has enough of a user base around it that they'll be able to get support. Yet they don't trust the salesman's choice because they assume the ulterior motives considered typical of a salesman who gets paid on commission.
Re:Diminishing returns? (Score:4, Interesting)
The NYT has a much better article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/technology/motorola-to-cut-20-of-work-force-part-of-sweeping-change.html [nytimes.com]
It does state that they will be reducing the number of models from 27 to "just a few".
Also they are attempting to introduce a more "small start-up culture" to Motorola. They got rid of 40% of their vice presidents which has to be a very good start.
Re:Diminishing returns? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Also they are attempting to introduce a more "small start-up culture" to Motorola"
Every failing company makes this claim. I have yet to see a single successful example.
Re:Diminishing returns? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Also they are attempting to introduce a more "small start-up culture" to Motorola"
Every failing company makes this claim. I have yet to see a single successful example.
Except for Apple itself, right? Bring Steve Jobs back, reducing the number of products offered, and introducing the iMac certainly seems like introducing a "small start-up culture" to me.
Learning the wrong lesson (Score:2)
the overriding lesson I would take from the iPhone is "make just one model"...selling phones seems to be about marketing first and technology second.
Then you would have learned exactly the opposite lesson Apple has been teaching the industry.
Apple's success rests wholly on the skill they have at executing excellent technology. How else would they maintain market share against a vast array of competing devices, many cheaper? That only happens when customers are happy enough with a product to tell other pe
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> the overriding lesson I would take from the iPhone is "make just one model".
The iPhone doesn't come in just one model, hence why they're called 2, 3s, 4, 4s respectively.
They make the latest model. Stop being pedantic.
So was the 3GS on clearance? (Score:2)
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Re:So was the 3GS on clearance? (Score:4, Interesting)
"So how could AT&T continue to sell the 3GS as an entry-level smartphone after the 4S was introduced? Did Apple really overproduce that many units?"
Yes Apple does manufacturer more than one model at the time, but they have a whole year to put their developers, marketers, logistics people, designers, behind one model, Once they do that, those costs are done and in the case of the 3GS -- can be spread out over 3 years.
Compare that to the typical Android OEM that manufacturers 10 or 12 phones a year. Apple's huge profit markets are partially due to the economies of scale by being able to buy one set of components for all of their phones.
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In strictest terms, yes, those are discrete models. However, the ipad 2/iphone 3gs/4 are "last years" models. That's the difference - Apple is not actively developing multiple models at the same time the way that the other phone manufacturers do, such as Galaxy S, Galaxy Note, etc. Apple has one line of phone, one line of tablet (maybe two starting next month if the rumors are true, though).
It certainly makes sense to continue producing an older version of the phone/tablet to offer at a lower price if yo
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Producing fewer, hopefully better products (Score:5, Interesting)
According to TFA, they're shifting strategy to make fewer devices, which I hope will be better than the things they've been churning out.. I suppose this is Apple's strategy, which has certainly worked well for them.
Hopefully a smaller product range will also allow for better after-market support. My phone is an Atrix, and I liked the hardware, but the software support has been lacklustre to say the least.
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Hopefully a smaller product range will also allow for better after-market support. My phone is an Atrix, and I liked the hardware, but the software support has been lacklustre to say the least.
If a company operates on the plan that no support is OK, maybe you'll buy a new one with fewer or at least different bugs, then cutting down the product line isn't going to help.
Re:Producing fewer, hopefully better products (Score:4, Interesting)
I suspect (and hope) that they're firing their programmers and keeping all the engineers. Motorola makes incredibly good radios, in my experience the best (my Motorola phones would get signals when nobody else there could get a signal), but their interfaces suck horribly.
This makes sense, since they're now owned by Google and the phones will surely be Androids.
More reasont to give up hope on a good dumb phone (Score:5, Interesting)
I've made a couple posts in the past regarding how I don't think anyone has ever spent sufficient effort to make a genuinely good feature/dumb phone. Too much effort is put on super-monetization-- from proprietary versions of internet connectivity to downloading Java games, there's just too much bloat in even the simplest of modern phones.
Here's what I would want from a proper modern feature phone:
Hardware:
**A telephone with a particularly good speaker and receiver, speaker phone
**A slideout QWERTY keyboard
**An MP3/Ogg/etc. player with equalizer and 3.5mm jack
**A camera that focuses on image quality, not color mods
**Bluetooth
**micro-SD card slot
**Alarm clock with calendar
**Some standard ringers with the functionality to play a ringer from micro-SD
**Chargeable by micro-USB cord
**With all the weight saved, get a better/larger battery
**Minimal animation/graphics. No need to burn battery on things NO ONE cares about.
No web access, no pic sending, no games, no playing or recording video. Just Phone, text, camera, music, alarm, and long battery life. Something that just works and works for a long time.
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Yeah, and who wants one of those new Core i5 laptops, either. I want the good old days of a 386 with Windows 3.1!
GET OFF MY LAWN
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so you want a smartphone, that cant browse the web or install apps. this is a terrible idea.
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I want a phone, not a useless toy.
Re:More reasont to give up hope on a good dumb pho (Score:5, Informative)
Easy: https://www.snapfon.com/index.php [snapfon.com]
you will never get that again (Score:2)
Smart phones are replacing your desktop, GPS, wallet, voting machine, library, personal assistant, etc.
It will get to the point wherr governments will supplement phones for the economic all ly disadvantaged, such as they are becoming de rigeur for membership in modern society
What you are asking for is like asking for a PC that only plays Pong
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take a picture?
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SSH into a server and do my job, how about that?
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Re:More reasont to give up hope on a good dumb pho (Score:4, Insightful)
Smartphones are not useless toys by any means. If you think that then I'm afraid your century has gone.
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I want a phone that does 3 tasks:
I want it to have an e-ink screen (max 2 lines of text; alphanumeric instead of bitmap is OK), 24-hour battery life, and be the same size and shape as a credit card (Ideally the same thickness too, but up to 5mm or so is OK).
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And finally, consider that I live in a country where these "extras" are considered luxury, and therefore I am forced to pay four times more than you would pa
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Many Nokia phones have offered pretty much everything on your list since 2001 or so with the release of the Nokia 7650.
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**Available in the United States, either as part of a contract or with a discount on the monthly bill for not taking a subsidized phone
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I had this phone. It was called the LG enV3 [google.com]. It was awesome for everything you described, except the keyboard didn't slide out it folded out. The battery would readily last 3-4 days. It had good calendar features, chargeable by micro-USB, Bluetooth, etc. This thing was easily made 3 years ago.
Now, I have an iPhone and I am not looking back. Being able to VPN back into work and run SSH from my phone is like magic. It is called progress, brother!
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Thanks for the phone reference. In regards to the iPhone (or any smartphone), the saying goes, "I couldn't find a purpose for the iPhone until I had one. Now I can't live without it."
That's not something I want. I don't want to VPN to work or check work emails when I'm out of the office. When I'm not at work, it's my time. I simply want a phone with communication with the people I choose to put in my circle with the bonus of not having to carry an MP3 player or camera with me. (Those things fold very easily
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A camera implies a color screen. A color screen implies games. A camera also implies video recording. I see your point, but leaving out video recording if it can take pictures, and leaving out simple games from ANY phone, is just stupid.
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I tend to agree. However, UI optimization has to be the key.
My wife is still using a 4 year old feature phone because the newer models are all inferior. Tasks she does often are buried in the menus (things like pull up contacts, send/read SMS, etc.). Stuff she doesn't care about is front-and-center, like browse the web, look for ringtones, and all that.
It seems like the newer devices are just designed to get people who don't have data plans to accidentally pull a kilobyte of data here or there so they ca
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I agree completely. I was holding onto a feature phone that was 3.5 years old because it was no longer available and everything else either requires a data plan or is touchscreen (which means I can't change tracks with the device in my pockets). I ended up "upgrading" to the touchscreen dumbphone. I'm not particularly happy with it, but that's what you have to do when you drop the phone down concrete stairs. =\
And that's a damn fine point about the kilobyte-temptation.
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I have no idea why some people, especially tech people who have completely different demands compared to most users, actually imagine that it's worthwhile for a company to make a phone to cater to their esoteric demands. The time of the N900 is past, smartphones are mainstream now, not mini Linux computers for geeks (though you can turn your android phone into one to an extent).
Out of your requirements, only battery life matters to the average user.
Have you tried a Blackberry? I still fondly remember the ke
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I think my taste (and others of similar taste) is as such because we've had certain life experiences to make us more cautious about adopting certain kinds of technology. I, for one, don't want to pay for a data plan that I would do my damnedest not to use.
I actually like using paper maps on the road (not GPS).
I don't want to read email when I should be spending time paying attention to the people and places around me.
I don't care if someone gave the eatery a 1-star rating on Yelp because the waitress only g
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You forgot the foremost requirement of any feature phone: it has to be really, really cheap. With low margins, nobody's going to spend a lot of money coming up with new designs. The only way to profit is to pick a tried-and-true design and run with it.
Re:More reasont to give up hope on a good dumb pho (Score:5, Insightful)
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**With all the weight saved, get a better/larger battery
What weight savings? With a slideout keyboard, your so-called "dumb phone" (with high-quality camera, bluetooth, speakerphone, usb, and mp3/ogg playback!!!) will easily weight more than an iphone.
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Once it has all that, there's virtually no cost to adding the other stuff.
What I'd like to see is a basic phone with large buttons, a small basic screen for call display and a minimal phone book. Make it built like a tank, along the lines of the old AT&T rental phones.
A phone that is ONLY a phone.
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Motofone f3, just about.
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But there's cost to the user. Modern feature phones are made to do whatever they can to get you to either buy a data plan you will not be able to use well enough or to get you to transfer data without a data plan and thus pay out the nose for 600KB of transfer.
I, too, would like a phone like the one you describe. It would be the only one I would give a child. ;)
Re:More reasont to give up hope on a good dumb pho (Score:4, Insightful)
that's still way too much unecessary crap. camera, mp3 player, sd-card slot, custom ring tones? you're confused, sonny boy, this is a god-dammned phone! keyboard for texting ok, because writing a sentence is better than wasting time yapping.no graphics at all are needed, a 4x25 line text display is plenty
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No web access, no pic sending, no games, no playing or recording video. Just Phone, text, camera, music, alarm, and long battery life. Something that just works and works for a long time.
Why does a feature phone even need a camera for? My grandma doesn't use the camera.
Make the numbers really big, so that she can dial a number, without having first to ask her grandson. And please, just forget the qwerty keyboard and the mp3 player. She just needs a working cell phone, not a freaking jukebox.
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That is what Motorola makes. Their problem is that the people who want them already have them and will use them for a decade, buying new batteries for $20 as necessary.
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That is what Motorola makes
No, that's what Motorola MADE. I have one and love it, great camera/video, keyboard, internet, email, ms pac man, qwerty keyboard, all in a phone that fits in my pants pocket. Exactly what I need. However, it's broken, and I can't get a replacement. I'll have to drive 100 miles to St Louis to get it repaired :(
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Of course, you realize this is nowhere near being in the best interest of manufacturer. You're asking for a low priced phone (margins aside) that you'll buy today and use for 10+ years. It's much more in their interest to get you to upgrade every couple of years. Repeat customer.
I'm sure your answer to that would be "Screw 'em! I'm the customer! This is what I want!" However, I'm sure we're all aware that it doesn't work this way. There is always the other spectrum where they are simply losing ove
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I actually like the tactile response of buttons. I almost put on the list that I want a button-based system (not touchscreen). Buttons allow me to do stuff on a phone without having to look at the phone (such as speed dialing or changing MP3 tracks).
Locked Bootloaders Suck... (Score:2)
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The locked bootloader situation may have more to do with the carrier than the manufacturer, although Motorola certainly isn't blameless here.
There is a reason that the Samsung Galaxy S3 had an unlockable bootloader on every single carrier it was released on except for Verizon.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/09/verizon-blames-samsung-for-locked-bootloader-in-galaxy-s-iii/ [engadget.com]
So when will MOTO be making the Nexus line? (Score:2)
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Google is supposedly expanding the Nexus line to at least 5 simultaneous devices in a few months. Maybe Moto will have something in there.
My understanding was that Google was going to operate Motorola almost as an independent company so as to not step on the toes of their other OEMs. I would expect Motorola to have to go through the same selection process of Asus, Samsung and everybody else.
They'll have to step on toes (Score:2)
My understanding was that Google was going to operate Motorola almost as an independent company so as to not step on the toes of their other OEMs. I would expect Motorola to have to go through the same selection process of Asus, Samsung and everybody else.
They can say that all they want but I don't really see how it would be possible. Google will have to compete directly with their partners at some level - there really is no way around that. Otherwise there was no point in buying Motorola Mobility unless they were just buying them for the patents and intend to shut down the manufacturing and design operations.
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Its quite easy. You just appoint leadership to the Motorola division, and then Google deals with them for most purposes just like they would any other hardware manufacturer.
Trust (Score:2)
Its quite easy. You just appoint leadership to the Motorola division, and then Google deals with them for most purposes just like they would any other hardware manufacturer.
It's not easy because there is no credible way for Motorola to compete successfully without Motorola's competitors presuming Google is giving them a leg up. The only way they will believe it is if Motorola behaves incompetently. And it Motorola is behaving incompetently Google's shareholders can, will and should throw a fit. Either they compete successfully and piss off their OEMs or they compete badly and piss off their shareholders.
The simple fact is that Motorola cannot be the same as any other manufa
My advice to Motorola (Score:5, Interesting)
1: Make one or two really good smartphones per year one of which should be of the "prime quality" status.
2: Do not ever lock up the boot loader. In fact make it easy for geeks to do whatever they want with the device.
3: Get rid of the so called MotoBlur or make it an option.
4: Make the phone a real beauty to look at. It should capture one's attention out of the box, i.e. by default. Google for some mock-up images. There are plenty.
5: Make it rugged that a small fall still leaves it working.
6: Make it easy for users to return defective devices, do not let the media define your product unless their definition is in your favor.
7: Advertise, advertise, advertise.
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Forget all the others, just do this! (I have an Atrix, so I have at least some experience with this)
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4: at the very least, stop cutting the corners off all of the phone designs. It seems like a poor attempt at looking futuristic, but it's just awful. Ugly ugly crap. Go back to the 2011 phone designs if necessary. The Droid X wasn't this ugly.
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On '3'...have you ever used Blur? Don't make it an option... >;-D
Otherwise, I've got to agree with all your 7 points.
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Make it impossible to accidentally[...]place a call (eg. to 911)
Yeah, especially if you're trying to buy some dope. [nydailynews.com]
Make it happen, Motorola!
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Not quite. They're complimentary. 2 allows CyanogenMod and other custom firmware images. 3 gets rid of a painful piece of bloatware out of the same without needing to have someone modify their firmware. Blur was done to "differentiate" Moto's Android stuff from everyone else's. Problem is...it was craptacular starting with the Backflip and was part of the reason they didn't have a good battery life as they ought to with that phone.
gogole treats dead employees better? (Score:2, Interesting)
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Having to die first would probably be a deal breaker.
good riddance (Score:2)
I bought a motorola feature phone a couple of years ago, and it was a piece of crap. I bought it because it had an USB port for charging (and bought the wrong cable at a flea market). the keypad was incredibly bad, worse than toy phones for children. then it just died. they cut too many corners and a Nokia or Samsung feature phone was exponentially better. (the motorola F3 was nice a few years before though, ironically it was meant for the 3rd world and thus that one was high quality)
It's Official? (Score:4, Informative)
A couple clients who are higher up in MMI told me about this just before the google buyout. I guess I can say something now?
This has been planned from the get-go, and it will weed out some inefficiency and bring in more of the "Google Culture" and clear out what most know is by-now pretty broken model at Motorola. On the whole, it sounds like a LOT of people are happy about this (from what I've heard). The people leaving will get some pretty good buyout packages, if I understand it right.
So, no need to panic. I'm interested in hearing other opinions, though.
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That was the general consensus when I talked with the people at Libertyville when I was one of their supplier's FAE's. I doubt that's changed any.
Good Less Engineers for MotoBlur. (Score:2)
I had a Atrix, and ditched it for an N9 it was so bad. I love the N9 even though it's not as fancy as Android. Yesterday I was watching someone use MotoBlur at a party is it was still jarring after not seeing it for months. The degree of emotional response surprised even me, it wasn't my phone any longer yet I cringed, then felt sorry for the user.
On top of that, Motorola just had too many products to ever be able to support them right. How it takes over a year to port to ICS is beyond me, when may of the c
Hello Moto (Score:3)
Good-bye Moto
So they're going to become the technology snobs? (Score:2)
Great another fucking apple wannabe, except they're only going to sell their over priced chinese slave made hardware to billionaires?
Welcome to the end of civilization. America is dead. The days of Kings and Slaves are back.
Re: (Score:2)
google bought motorola to protect samsung presumably.
Probably Not. (Score:4, Interesting)
Google’s law firm of choice for intellectual property matters, Quinn Emmanuel, is also representing Samsung, Motorola, and HTC in litigation with Apple over patent infringement.
Apple are attacking Android publicly. I personally can only see Google supporting Samsung...and others. That was kind of the point of the Google acquiring Motorola in the first place.
Re: (Score:3)
Or because Motorola threaten to sue other Android manufacturers.....
http://www.unwiredview.com/2011/08/11/motorolas-sanjay-jha-openly-admits-they-plan-to-collect-ip-royalties-from-other-android-makers/ [unwiredview.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Don't know about brain surgery, but I know if you are minority and have no health insurance they will give a rat ass about your health.
That is why more Americans have done organ transplants in places like Mexico or China, and most of them are minorities.
You either die by waiting in line behind the white or rich, or die by having a bad procedure. For the minorities. the choice are clear. It's all about risk taking.
Re:Expected (Score:5, Funny)
You don't need death benefits, you need to start singing country music.