Motorola Rolls Dice on Microsoft Deal

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=11631' target='_blank'>http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=11631</a><br /><br /></div>"Motorola needed Microsoft because its own operating software wasn’t ready and it couldn’t afford to miss the market shift to smart phones. Microsoft needed Motorola as a foothold in the wireless market, a key new growth front for the company. <br /><br />...New Motorola CEO Edward Zander, a veteran of Microsoft archrival Sun Microsystems Inc., knows the risks. He’s betting that Motorola’s software will be ready for the mass market before Windows attracts a wireless following, and that he can spin away from Microsoft intact."<br /><br />Motorola has spent a lot of time and energy building and marketing their handsets. I find it hard to believe that it was only meant to fill time. Why choose Microsoft and give them a leg up? Motorola has Symbian devices, and until recently, they had a 19% share in Symbian. So why not just keep using Symbian until your OS is ready? This just doesn't sound right to me and I hope it's not true. Motorola has brought the best designed hardware that we've seen in a long time. It would be a shame if the partnership ended so early.

[Kris Kumar]

Interesting story...so Moto is buying time..hmm...

Can be true, because my friend at Moto did mention that they are focusing on Linux and Java a lot.

And isn't it true that Samsung does not have any plans for the i600 successor. Samsung's lack of plans and Moto strategy spells doom for SP(, atleast in US).

Kris

[Malte]

I think this person is talking out of an orifice. I can't find a sigle hard fact in that article to support the notion that the MS Smartphone OS would be a temporary solution for Motorola.

[markpmc]

Makes sense. I've been confused by the Moto/M$ stuff from day one.

I "knew" they'd sold thier Symbian stock because they were betting on embedded Linux. The M$ products suprised me and frankly they're pretty tempting.

Keep on thing in mind before you just dismiss this story. Moto really wanted it's Wisdom OS in smart phones, but couldn't make it work. Moto WANTS and NEEDS to control the OS in it's smartphones. Just because linux is open doesn't imply a lack of control.

M$ may really just be a stop gap measure. I'll bite.

markpmc

[possmann]

NOOOOOOOO!

crap

This just goes back to the fragmentation of existing OS' out there in the cell phone industry already. There was another post about an OS on cell phones - although that post was regarding Symbian (I think). I can't wait to see the day where we buy a cell phone - or PDA - like we buy a computer. We look at a vendor for hardware features and screw the OS.

So you have the hardware vendors developing thier own OS, the carriers modifying the OS to their specific desires... what a mess.