Weekend rant: Should Motorola keep making hardware?

It’s been a while since Google acquired Motorola in a $12.5 deal which was mostly described as a patent play. From then on, Moto released few products most of which failed to impress us, including the new Atrix HD. So I’m wondering – maybe it’s time for Google to completely dump Motorola’s hardware business? After all – it’s not like any of the Nexus devices had Moto’s branding – quite the contrary, the search giant gave few of its partners the spotlight in every Nexus device, whether it was a smartphone (HTC and Samsung) or tablet (Asus).

Google isn’t hardware company

Google isn’t a hardware company and shouldn’t be involved in smartphone/tablet design and production. Making stuff comes with much lower margins than it used to, with Google’s ad business still paying most of the bills for the company.

Other Android makers don’t like the fact that Google owns Motorola

If I were at Samsung, HTC or LG, I would be concerned that Google can now make its own hardware. The Mountain View-based company wants to keep its partners happy so they in turn could keep launching new devices. Sure, Google could leave some part of Motorola to test how the software works across different hardware (get some additional expertise), but that’s like 5% of Motorola.

Who will buy Motorola?

Presuming Google wants to get rid of Motorola’s hardware-making business it has a problem – how will buy it? Without patents Google wants to keep, Moto doesn’t look like a good purchase. Perhaps Microsoft could buy it, perhaps not…

In any case, Motorola with its not-that-impressive portfolio of devices looks more like a cost rather than profit center for Google. What do you think?

About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.

vangrieg

Well, it shouldn’t be making SOFTware for sure.
Sjones

2 words for the author of this article. Spell checking.
Anonymous

I have a droid razr maxx and i love it. Lets not forget who started all this mobile phone tech either! I dont care who bought who, Motorola will always be the first.
http://www.facebook.com/sunny.singhi Sunny Singhi

who is this guy …..maybe forgot to write sponsored from sammy ….moto makes the best hardware and the atrix hd and all were pre google ….just wait n watch this space …personally i think the one who should stop making hardware is samsung
Geojameson

Proofread much?
Anonymous

I like motos’ durable build quality and there software is far far farrrrrr better now then MOTOBLUR or ninja blur was out. I think from the BACKFLIP to dx to were it is now software wise is a major improvement.
Same with samsung and htc.
But the one that has gone from the worst to near best is moto. I just hope the gpu in the future phones are less “last year”
Tino Q.

Well Dusan, I don’t give a rat’s a$$ about your little stupid rant!

I have used devices from all the manufacturers but I always used Motorola the most. Yea they aren’t perfect but they’re solid and really, really good.

So, if you want Motorola/Google to stop making hardware, why don’t you just stop writing altogether instead?!

Have a nice life!
- http://www.intomobile.com Dusan Belic
  
  Thanks for the comment, though.
Shirondale Kelley

Motorola has made some solid hardware in the past both inside and outside of phones. Despite how awesome of their work may be, they often fail to live up to their full potential.

I own a Photon 4G, a lapdock, their S10-HD Stereo bluetooth headset and I was planning to grab a Moto Actv once the price drops. Motorola comes up with some very fascinating concepts but they very rarely are able to bring something to the mainstream and maintain that momentum.

Look at webtop, very fascinating and very dead now. In fact, ASUS has surpassed Motorola on the versatility of their handsets with their Padfone and its’ accessories.

I don’t hear anyone discussing their Droid line outside of the Maxx now and I don’t believe that their sales will remain steady if they keep trying to support multiple product lines within the same industry. What truly differentiates the Droid from the Atrix? Why would it matter and why couldn’t they focus their efforts on less devices but higher quality?

What’s going on with their tablets? These issues are things that contribute to the hardware portion of the company constantly being scrutinized. I don’t actively follow their sales but the last time I checked they weren’t significant enough to challenge the market share of the current leaders in any significant way. There was nothing showing that they would be able to do so eventually. On top of that, Googles hands-off approach will just leave them there to languish if that’s what they’re truly going to do.

Personally, I like Motorola products. I don’t like the locked bootloaders on their devices and the back pedaling on their commitments to the community. If it wasn’t for the work of independent developers, I wouldn’t even bother with the phone that I have now anymore. I would’ve just switched to a Nexus or saved up for the Padfone. You’re very spot on Dusan, I don’t see them becoming a profit leader anytime soon.