Motorola: Savors The Taste Of Old Wine

Motorola stepped out of the Symbian family in 2003 with the thought of bettering their performance through the Linux and Windows Mobile platforms. What they might not have thought about was that they would be getting into the Symbian fold eventually. By picking up a 50% stake in UIQ technology from Sony Ericsson, Motorola has been the prodigal child that has returned to the Symbian family.

Now what’s this UIQ Technology all about? To put things in perspective UIQ develops and licenses an open software platform to the world's leading mobile phone manufacturers and supports licensees in the drive towards developing a mass market for open mobile phones. UIQ-based phones are powerful and give access to enterprise applications such as email, multimedia clips, and web pages.

With all these changes in the air Motorola seems to be emphasizing more on upgrades rather than just launching new phones with stereotypical abilities. All of 2007 witnessed the launch of the ‘Q9h’ smartphone and rumors are rife that the ‘W’ series in the offing. Might sound strange from a biggie such as Motorola which is home to the Razr range of phones but its clear to me that their pushing in a statement that says ‘Upgrades First, Phones Later’.

Also, Motorola is shying away from older handset platforms such as the P2K on the original RAZR. Motorola may have committed to the UIQ platform, but they're not necessarily showing it in their handset lineup as of now. The last instance we have heard of UIQ on Moto phones was on the Z8. Let’s watch out to see what the stake in UIQ has in store!

Where does Moto see itself from here? Only time has an answer as to whether customers would queue up to clasp their hands on their favorite Razrs with those fully loaded apps which could very hold the key to Motorola in a rather fiercely competitive mobile market.

By Ashok Kumar S