It looks like Motorola’s Android handsets have been doing pretty well, as the co-CEO Sanjay Jha said the impending split could happen early next year.
This isn’t much of a surprise, as we already know that Motorola planned to turn its handset division into an independent company for a while now and the first quarter of 2011 had been the target. Jha’s statements do give us a clearer window though, so let’s expect the Motorola split to occur in January or February – I’d guess late February so the company can get CES and the Mobile World Congress trade shows out of the way.
The interesting thing about a Motorola split is that the handset division is finally on the upswing and this seemed nearly impossible a few years ago. The handset division was in the toilet because the company failed to innovate beyond the Razr and investors became frustrated.
It’s hard to blame them too, as Motorola’s handset division lost billions of dollars over the last couple years while the company’s set-top box division and networking gear were raking in the cash.
But the company seems to be gaining its footing in the smartphone space and it has gone all-in with Android. The Motorola Droid was a smash hit and it was the first smartphone that I’ve seen that comes close to the iPhone in being spotted in the wild.
The Droid X and Droid 2 are also good devices that are doing pretty well at the box office. The company just went on an Android tear too, as it unveiled five new Android smartphones for a variety of customers: The Bravo, Flipout Flipside, Citrus and the Droid Pro.
The Droid Pro could be a strong player in the enterprise market, as it has a BlackBerry form factor and the security essentials that companies demand. We got some hands-on time with it at CTIA, check out the video below.
[Via Bloomberg]