Motorola downsizes even further, shifts focus to Android development
We can’t say we’re terribly surprised, but news the Motorola is cutting more jobs from their already sinking ship is a bit disheartening. The company has announced that they will be shifting their focus from the 3 OS platforms that they currently support to a measly 3. The company is expected to focus entirely on Windows Mobile, P2K, and Android, with the majority of their resources directed at the latter. What this means is that anyone at the company who’s work deal primarily with one of the 3 86′d platforms could see themselves downsized out of a job in the very near future, with the Wall Street Journal predicting layoffs numbering in the thousands. Android is clearly going to play a very prominent role in the mobile device landscape over the next several years, and seeing a company like Motorola make such a significant shift in Google’s direction is clear evidence of that fact. In the mean time, our condolences go out to the rest of the Moto team.
Tags: Android, google, Motorola, Windows Mobile 6.1
“The company has announced that they will be shifting their focus from the 3 OS platforms that they currently support to a measly 3.”
The six OS platforms that they currently support?
I definitely see platform consolidation as a good thing for the cell phone industry. I wonder if in the future non-smartphone platforms will be eliminated entirely, and all phones will be spec’ed for some type of smartphone.
Too bad for Moto, though. Hopefully they can get the ball rolling on an Android device that will have appeal.
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I worked over there this last summer and this is something that I think was needed for a long time. From what I can remember, there were 0 platforms: Linux-Java, Windows Mobile, and P2K. LJ is probably the worst OS that I encountered during testing. I’m so glad that they are deciding to throw it away and replace it with Android.
I was present when they announced Sanjay as the new Co-CEO with Gregg Brown. At the time, I believe he announced that he was all for Android, so this is something that I was expecting.
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0 platforms?
Now I’m really confused… Quit making typos people!
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so what this mean by by iden by by ruggetness by by sym.os focus on android im going to say by by moto
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Oh, sorry about that. I had that as a placeholder as I was trying to count them in my head when I was writing out the names. Sorry about that. It’s obviously 3 platforms, and it looks like they added in Android and phazed out LJ, THANK GOD.
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What phones used the Linux/Java platform? Was that the JUIX thing that like the RAZR2 used?
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*DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a huge Moto fan.
Now, with that out of the way -
Motorola is frequently referred to as a “sinking ship,” and while that may be true in regards to their phone division, let’s remember that they DO in fact, have their hands in a number of other tecnologies (admittedly none as prominent as mobile). What they announced today was a necessary measure for them if they plan to get the mobile division headed in the right direction - my condolences go out to those affected. Keep in mind that a number of financial consortiums and analysts feel that as a long-term investment, the big M is severly undervalued. Lastly, the old saying that an ebbing tide lowers all boats - Motorola is down almost 74% from their 52 week high, Nokia is down over 62% from their 52 week high, Research In Motion is down almost 70% from their 52 week high, and so on and so on. I am well aware that with the hit the market has taken, that most (if not every) tech stock is way off their 52 week high, I just feel that it is worth mentioning.
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Motorola is so screwed….relying on an unproven OS. They think a “social networking phone” is going save them? What Fortune 500 executive clamor for it? People in their 20’s all buy Apple…they dont want a Motorola.
The best part is that they agreed to pay CEO Sanjay Jha $30M even if he fails.
For more coverage on f*cked companies: http://www.f-ckedcompany.com
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An example of an LJ phone would be the MotoZINE ZN5. Most of the newer phones that they came out with are LJ. LJ is usually pretty sluggish compared to P2K. LJ is also able to be more customized than P2K, which is why it was used on more of the higher-end phones.
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