Motorola

By CIO New Zealand staff | Monday, January 11 2010

These use Google’s Android software, and Motorola plans an Android-based developer community to try to repeat a formula that worked with the iPhone.

Global HQ: Schaumburg, Illinois, US
Website: www.motorola.com
Global leader: Gregory Brown, president and co-CEO, and Sanjay Jha, co-CEO
Local leader: Paul Blinkhorn, country manager, ANZ
Core activity: Communications systems
Revenue: US$30.1 billion (FY08 ended December 31)
Key customers: Optus, Beijing Police Bureau, China Mobile, Delhi
International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, StarHub (Singapore),
Unwired (Fiji)
Employees: 64,000

When your local newspaper turns against you, things must be bad. The past few years have been a disaster for the company, according to the Chicago Tribune in September, as it cites plummeting mobile sales, vanishing profits, mounting layoffs and a plan to divide itself indefinitely postponed.

The newspaper says the former market leader has been eclipsed by rivals such as Apple’s iPhone and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry. Analysts agree, and Forrester Research says Motorola is “facing an identity crisis”.

But the company is fighting back under new co-CEO Sanjay Jha with a new range of smartphones.

These use Google’s Android software, and Motorola plans an Android-based developer community to try to repeat a formula that worked with the iPhone.

While doubtful of future performance, Gartner sees some hope for Motorola with Android, helped by components from Qualcomm. Darren Greenwood