There really aren’t words to describe Motorola’s fall from glory. Perhaps words like spectacular, incredible, amazing were apt descriptions of Motorola’s once giant-footprint on the global wireless stage. But, today, those same words could be used to describe the company’s almost perplexing fall from up high.
Motorola’s leadership has failed, since the days of Ed Zander and now with Greg Brown’s arguable ineptitude, to capitalize on their fantastic success with the RAZR lineup of slim
flip-phones. And, following quarter after quarter of massive net losses due to its handset manufacturing business, Motorola has attempted to turn their wayward ship around with repeated job-cuts and confused corporate restructuring. Most significantly, Motorola has decided to spin-off its handset business, in hopes that it can still make money from its cellphone-making business.
But, the problem Motorola is currently facing is rooted in the company leadership’s apparent inability to, at once, find good executive managers of its various cellphone divisions and refusal to cut-off its useless heads and start fresh.
To help remedy their current problems, Motorola has appointed new leadership for its handset divisions in the China/Taiwan, Asia-Pacific, EMEA, and North American markets. Motorola has seen massive market share losses in all regions, but perhaps the most damaging is Moto’s decline in its home market – the US. Once a US handset market giant, Motorola is now dangerously close to being passed up by Samsung and LG in terms of market share.
And, with Motorola’s next big hit, the 5-megapixel Kodak-branded Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5 cameraphone, slated for an initial launch in China, Motorola’s future in the US questionable. Rather than concentrating on taking back its single largest and home market, Motorola is hocking its wares in lesser markets – which may be a sign that Motorola itself realizes the ZN5 may not fly all that high in the US.
Whatever the case, we can only hope that Motorola’s leadership can at least build a marketable handset business so that another manufacturer can come in and turn things around. Otherwise, our beloved Motorola will shrink away in to network-equipment obscurity.
[Via: ChicagoBusiness]