Google continues to pare down Motorola (Harvard, Bushnell: sale, private school, calculated)

[chet everett]

...destroying lives and shareholder in their wake...

[ChiNaan]

I'm curious, then: 1) What, specifically, do you think Motorola would have done with Motorola Mobility to make it thrive in the future, that won't be done by Google and the companies Google sells to? 2) Seeing as how the ability you think they had to make it thrive in the future would have surely meant large profits for them, what do you think was their reason for selling that division when they did?

[rparz]

What's better, Google buying it and laying off some people while keeping others, or Motorola left to flop around for a year or two before they finally go out of business and give everyone their walking papers?

[chet everett]

There were a tremendous number of people that have talent and experience with designing advanced cell phone hardware at Motorola. The problems they ran into were largely with a reluctance of layers of management to put muscle & money into the kinds of user interface features that are the strength of Apple. Coupled with the failure to retain control of "feature set" in the face of heavy carrier subsidies and a generally weak understanding of things like "personal information managers" (aka Palm Pilot) and "personal music players" (aka iPod...) the realities of the market allowed other phones to leave Motorola in the dust.

Same sorts of strengths / weaknesses in Moto's settop business -- great hardware, crummy UI, business model best described as "bent over and lubed up" in regard to the cable companies...

If google was serious about growing these businesses they certainly could have done LOTS by keeping them together -- the AppleTV little streaming device is allegedly the most widely adopted such device. Very minimalist UI, dead nuts simple setup, integrates with other devices like iPhone & iPad, totally OUTSIDE the control of cable companies.

Are there other ways that Moto could've kept the devices / divisions together and been profitable? Sure, including doing more to foster a true community of developers (way back in the dark ages of Java when Sun was in charge there were traces of this, but Moto's experience with computer hardware in the Apple cloning saga probably left scars that prevented them from working more closely / merging with Sun and once Oracle bought Sun that door largely closed...). Once upon a time there were rumors that Moto might've worked with all kinds of other networking or UI firms to deliver a more robust experience -- Cisco, IBM, SGI and others all were viable options at one time or another...

It sounds crazy now but once upon a time Micheal Dell gave advice to Apple: "liquidate and admit that you've lost to Windows". That seems to be a variation on the strategy that Motorola now has as an orphan hw centric part of advertisign driven google. Sad that there is not a visionary from the Galvin days willing to "return them to greatness" the way Jobs returned to put Apple back in the game...

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by chet everett

It sounds crazy now but once upon a time Micheal Dell gave advice to Apple: "liquidate and admit that you've lost to Windows".

And in the non mobile device business, they still ARE losing to Windows.

The marketshare of Windows is still over 80% for desktops and laptops. The reason why Apple got into it is because they did admit defeat and went after a market that was still infant - portable (i.e. phones, portable music players) devices. They're lucky Jobs & co were ahead of the game because they would have gone down the ****ter long ago if not for the iPod and iPhone. While OSX is great and all, the percentage of people using it is still pretty low compared to Windows. Where Apple is winning is with mobile phones, tablets, and portable music/media devices. I believe their market share is around 60% for that while Google's is around 30% (OS wise). I full expect that margin to wane in the coming years. Google was smart in creating their framework for Java, which if you're any sort of modern programmer/software engineer/computer scientist, you probably already know a little bit. Objective C on the other hand has some proprietary stuff in it that will turn off some developers. The only reason we/they put up with it is because of the market share, but given that it's easier to roll out something with Android, we're choosing that as the #1.

[rparz]

I see apple chipping away at that lead. Hard core PC users are now getting iphones and learning that there is a seamless hardware/software interface and getting ipads and talking their next machine will be a mac.

Not that Windows left them with a bad taste, but sometimes you just don't want 'to mess with it' and drivers and what not.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by rparz

I see apple chipping away at that lead. Hard core PC users are now getting iphones and learning that there is a seamless hardware/software interface and getting ipads and talking their next machine will be a mac.

Not that Windows left them with a bad taste, but sometimes you just don't want 'to mess with it' and drivers and what not.

They most definitely are, and have been, chipping at the lead, but it's still 80-20 in favor of Windows for the desktop/laptop market.

[Plzeň]

Originally Posted by rparz

What's better, Google buying it and laying off some people while keeping others, or Motorola left to flop around for a year or two before they finally go out of business and give everyone their walking papers?

Well said.

[C. Maurio]

Motorola is a has been company. The corporate leadership ruined it. They should have stuck with what they did best which was making the best radio communication equipment in the world. Instead they decided to make all kinds of other things like cable TV stuff and took their eyes off their core business.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by C. Maurio

Motorola is a has been company. The corporate leadership ruined it. They should have stuck with what they did best which was making the best radio communication equipment in the world. Instead they decided to make all kinds of other things like cable TV stuff and took their eyes off their core business.

Exactly. Blame whatever they did that made them no longer able to run it profitably. Don't blame the companies trying to salvage what's left of them.