What remains for Motorola?

An interesting analysis in which the chief editor of the blog GigaOm talks about the fate of Motorola. In the photo - Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola.

When Google introduced its Nexus One phone, everyone suddenly saw that the connected Android ecosystem is a monster with three heads: Qualcomm supplies a processor, Google is the operating system, and HTC is a priority device manufacturer. (In the writing world of WinTel, there was the same triad: Microsoft, Intel, and Dell.) It is now clear that Nexus One took the game from Motorola with its CEO, Sanjay Jha, who ventured to make a bet on Android.

In Googleplex, where the presentation of the novelty took place, Google did its best to ensure that its partners did not get the impression that they were decided to circle their fingers. Google even invited Jah to the presentation: he came on the scene and mumbled some polite nonsense. Many people noticed that he was late (“problems with traffic jams”) and left the event immediately after completion.
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You can call me a cynic, but guys with corporate aircraft get stuck in traffic only of their own free will. According to his gestures and behavior, it was clear that the Nexus One doesn’t cause the management of Motorola much enthusiasm, especially in view of the fact that it itself put the entire bank on Android. I have two very serious sources in the mobile industry that confirm this.

In Ja's place, I would feel that I was cleverly circled around my finger. The Verizon version of the Nexus One will be available soon, and it will hit Motorola Droid sales a lot. The winner’s laurels will once again get HTC, a Taiwanese manufacturer in which Qualcomm has a minority stake.

“We made an investment in HTC very early, and I was personally acquainted with Peter Chou (Peter Chou, HTC CEO - approx. Lane),” said Qualcomm chief Paul Jacobs in an interview two years ago in an interview with Brooke Crozers (Brook Crothers) from Cnet. Speaking about Android, Qualcomm and HTC, Jacobs then said these words: "These are people who have long been familiar with each other over the years in the wireless industry." I personally wonder if HTC is going to create a smartbook or a tablet based on Qualcomm and Chrome. (It is the close relationship between Qualcomm and HTC that explains why HTC is going to port its Sense technology to the BREW platform, which is gradually moving away into non-existence.)

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue made an estimate yesterday that January 6, 2009, that Motorola sold 12.5 million mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2009. Earlier, his estimate was slightly higher - 13 million. He called the reason for the decline poor sales of CLIQ, which T-Mobile USA is engaged in. In this case, Motorola in the short term, puts on the United States and China, and only after that plans to expand into Europe. Although sales of the Droid have already reached a million, Motorola is still hanging in the balance, and any perturbation in the market - for example, the Nexus One - may break this hair. The same version of Nexus One for Verizon will compete directly with the future device that Motorola intends to sell to Verizon customers. I'm talking about a device on MotoBlur, codenamed Calgary, which was reported by Mark Sue.

That's why the Nexus One is a knife in the back of the Motorola. And what options do Jah have? Call Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief? No, this is a terrible idea. Microsoft itself is unable to stop the rushing train Android. But even if she does, Motorola does not gain anything from it: she still needs a non-Microsoft operating system. Perhaps LiMo or Symbian? Also not the best choice.

Motorola needs something else: it should take an example from Apple and RIM and start rebuilding vertical integration. And for this she needs to buy a Palm. As I said, Palm has a great OS and several other strengths, including John Rubinstein and his team, which has a lot of Apple guys. The Palm team has to do the software, and the Motorola engineers have the hardware. And in terms of hardware, you need to borrow design and production principles from Apple that are well known to Rubinstein.

Back in March 2007, I wrote that Motorola should buy a Palm. The tactical reasons for this, which I then cited, are no longer relevant, but the strategic imperative for merging these companies is still relevant: Palm needs scale, Motorola needs software. This is the only way Motorola can decide its own fate, and not depend on external sources, be it Android or any other OS. Over the past three years, both these companies have turned a pale similarity to themselves in the past. Now they do not have a minute to delay. For Rubinstein and Jah, it's time to pick up the phone and dial the number.