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Tag: motorola

  • Motorola Introduces MOTOBLUR – the New Vision of Android Phones

    We have saved the date for long-expected Motorola’s big event, but instead of rumored two phones – Sholes and Morrison – the company introduced just one handset – CLIQ and the new custom Android UI – the MOTOBLUR.

    “Your entire social life now in a single streem!” – announced Motorola at GigaOM’s Mobilize ‘09 conference, unveiling the company’s first Android phone, “the first phone with social skills”. But all that buzz was not much about the new device, it was more about the new innovative interface solution.

    Developed by Motorola, MOTOBLUR is a solution that manages and integrates communications: it syncs contacts, posts, messages, photos, etc. – from sources such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail, e-mail – and automatically delivers it to live widgets on the home screen. There is no need to open and close different applications or menus.

    According to the company, MOTOBLUR is also easy to set up and secure – all contacts, log-in information, home screen customizations, e-mail and social network messages are backed up on the MOTOBLUR secure server. Lost or stolen phones can be found with integrated A-GPS from the online owner’s portal, and data can even be wiped clean.

    “With MOTOBLUR we are differentiating the Android experience for consumers by delivering a unique mobile device experience designed around the way people interact today,” said Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola.

    “MOTOBLUR helps us to create phones that are instinctive, social and smart,” he added.

    This new solution will be available first on Motorola’s new device, called Motorola CLIQ in the U.S. and Motorola DEXT elsewhere around the globe.

    In the U.S., CLIQ will be available exclusively to T-Mobile customers later this fall in two colors — Titanium and Winter White.

    DEXT will be available with Orange in the United Kingdom and France, Telefonica in Spain and America Movil in Latin America.

    The first Motorolas’s 3G Android-powered device features include a 3.1-inch HVGA touch-screen display, a 5 megapixel auto focus camera with video capture and playback at 24 frames per second, a 3.5mm headset jack, a music player with pre-loaded Amazon MP3 store application, Shazam, iMeem Mobile, and a pre-installed 2GB microSD memory card.

    This QWERTY slider comes with thousands of applications and widgets from MOTOBLUR, Android Market or pre-loaded Google mobile services, Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, YouTube and Picasa.

  • Save the Date for Motorola’s Android Sholes and Morrison

    With the giants of the mobile phone industry battling it out at the top, little has been said about the struggling Android platform that was rumored to be a unique way users could interface with their phones. While not entirely without its merit Motorola has suffered with the few struggling Windows Mobile platform phone it’s tried to release, making little impact in the cellular market.

    It’s unfortunate that the power players in the mobile market have literally ousted some of the more well known brand names in the industry, specifically Motorola, which does not even rank in the top ten of most used phones. Will they be relegated to focus on the less expensive consumer market or is there room for them to still make a splash?

    Mark your calendars friends, because September 10th will see a huge announcement regarding Motorola’s unveiling of their own Android phone line. This announcement is the planned cornerstone for the rebirth of Motorola.

    The event which will take place in San Francisco, CA has had little information released on just what the announcements will be. Still, rumors say that the announcement of the Sholes and the Morrison phones will be the first out of the gate.

    The first, Sholes, will be a high end phone focusing on the professional power user focusing on high processing speeds and a 5 megapixel camera. The second, Morrison, will be a more economically based Android phone which will end up on the T-Mobile network and support 3G.

    These phones are just the first in what is expected to be a long line of phones on various networks in order to regain some of the market share lost to the bigger brand names in play.

    Motorola looks to increase excitement with their innovation and the possibility of a glimpse into Android 2.0 which could very well power these new phones and offer such extras as entire phone search, multi-gesture shortcuts and multi-touch.

    For now, it’s stated that the phones will come activated with the Blur interface which looks to tie every social aspect of the individual into a unique experience with the OS. This would definitely attract a vast majority of mobile users as connectivity through various networks has been on the rise, and would be a high selling point if the platform is able to show ease of use.

  • Motorola to Feature Blockbuster Movie Download Service in Next Generation Handsets

    Blockbuster, a provider of in-home movie and game entertainment, announced plans to feature the BLOCKBUSTER OnDemand movie download service in select Motorola phones. Through the agreement next generation Motorola phones will feature the OnDemand application, providing on-the-go download access to Blockbuster’s digital library of current movies.

    Earlier this year, Motorola announced it is to unveil Android powered handsets in the fourth quarter.

    Blockbuster launched a movie rental service via set-top boxes last year. It offered a STB made by 2Wire that plays downloaded movies. Renting a movie for online playback at Blockbuster generally costs between $1.99 and $3.99.

    In March this year, Blockbuster and TiVo announced that they are working to make Blockbuster’s service available on all TiVo Series2 and Series3 DVRs (including the HD and HD XL models) in the second half of 2009.

    The agreement with Motorola it’s a part of the company’s new digital strategy to provide its library of digital entertainment to mobile devices.

    "Motorola is a recognized global communications leader and extending the BLOCKBUSTER brand and our OnDemand service into their portfolio of innovative new phones is a natural extension of our digital strategy," said Kevin Lewis, Senior Vice President of Digital Entertainment for Blockbuster.

    "Mobile video entertainment is exploding, as consumers are demanding the widest selection of content: the movies they love in their living room and on their PC, now also available on their mobile phone, while on the go," added Christy Wyatt, Vice President of Software Platforms, Applications and Ecosystem of Motorola Mobile Devices.

    According to Blockbuster the agreement will also further the company’s multi-channel vision of eventually Blockbuster enabling customers to use OnDemand application with multiple consumer electronics and portable devices, such as PCs, PMPs, Blu-ray Disc players, PVRs, set-top boxes, mobile phones and Web-connected TVs, to search Blockbuster’s entire catalog of entertainment content and download available titles for rent or purchase, schedule movies for mail delivery through, or reserve titles for in-store pick-up.

  • Motorola Accelerates TD-LTE Commercialization with Success in Trials

    Motorola announced successful completion of its joint Over-the-Air (OTA) trial with operators as part of the collaborative Time Division Duplex Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) commercialization.

    According to Motorola, its key trial achievements include:
    • First company to complete download throughput up to 70 megabits per second (Mbps) in a 20 megahertz (MHz) bandwidth channel
    • Mobility and hand-over with live applications
    • Multi-User Equipment (UE) testing under one sector

    All trial results have been submitted to the LTE/System Architecture Evolution (SAE) Trial Initiative (LSTI).

    Motorola’s LTE solution is comprised of its OFDM broadband platform and a selection of radio options that include MIMO and smart antennas as well as its self-organizing network (SON) solution. The portfolio includes frame based-mounted radios, remote radio heads and tower top radios to support a variety of LTE deployment scenarios.

    In addition to the collaborative trials with operators, Motorola is also engaged with the TD-LTE trials initiated by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) as part of its efforts to develop a globally competitive TD-LTE industry.

    Motorola’s Wireless Broadband Access Solutions (WBAS) Hangzhou team and Wideband Base Transceiver Systems (WBTS) China team have been working with Chinese operators for many years to get TD-LTE closer to market reality in China.

    “Motorola is committed to broadband and 4G developments, and supports both TD-LTE and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) LTE. We’ve made significant progress in TD-LTE commercialization as demonstrated by these trials," said Dr. Mohammad Akhtar, vice president and general manager of Motorola China.

    Equipment involved in these trials is based on Motorola’s second-generation OFDM products including Motorola’s Base Band Unit (BBU) that supports TD-LTE, FDD-LTE and WiMAX, and features a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) that supports 2×2 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO).

    “LTE is the next big technology in wireless networking and incorporates several key technologies such as smart antenna, all IP and OFDM to enable operators to deliver rich, high bandwidth, multimedia services,” said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, corporate vice president of Motorola.

    Earlier this year, Motorola deployed a live 700MHz LTE demonstration network in Las Vegas, replicating the successful 2.6GHz live LTE experience in Barcelona. During these two drive tours, visitors were driven around the streets to experience the performance of LTE in a real-life metropolitan RF environment.

  • Motorola to cut mobile staff by half


    Motorola is considering reducing the workforce in its mobile devices group by as much as 50 per cent.

    The company is reportedly set to start major layoffs this week that would reduce staff levels by half and is said to be dramatically scaling back its phone development as a whole.

    Nearly all development for smartphones is already believed to be switching exclusively to Android while Motorola’s own phone introductions may scale back to as few as 12 devices per year.

    The company is also reportedly shelving plans to have a booth at the CTIA show in April despite its being the premier cellphone event in the US, according to Phone Scoop.

    The cutbacks if accurate suggest increasingly desperate attempts to revive the company’s fortunes.

    In the last quarter, Motorola had a USD $397 million loss and phone sales by the American cellphone producer dropped by a third in just 12 months.

    Much of the blame for this has been put on substantial drops in high-end phones as well as the lack of a compelling low-end product.

    The company’s popular RAZR recently lost its top ranking in the US to the iPhone and BlackBerries.

  • Motorola Commits To WinMo And Android


    Motorola is to discontinue making phones for Symbian and will instead concentrate on two new platforms: Windows Mobile and Android.

    Sanjay Jha, CEO of the Mobile Devices group at Motorola, confirmed what had until now been rumors to Michael Oryl of MobileBurn.

    Motorola’s stake in Symbian was in UIQ, a part of the OS being cut following Nokia’s decision to move to an open platform.

    A leading force in the US smartphone market, Motorola has seen it position threatened of late.

    In November, Apple’s iPhone overtook Motorola’s Razr to become the best-selling consumer cellphone in the US in the third quarter of 2008.

    Motorola is now expected to postpone any product launches until the end of 2009 to allow it to prepare its new Android devices.

  • iPhone Ousts Razr As Smartphones Dominate US


    Apple’s iPhone has overtaken Motorola’s Razr to become the best-selling consumer cellphone in the US in the third quarter of 2008.

    Results from research firm NPD show the Razr, which has been the top-selling phone for the last 3 years, now sits second, with RIM’s BlackBerry Curve in third place, followed by two LG phones, which rounded out the top five.

    NPD’s report doesn’t include sales figures, but Apple’s exclusive US carrier partner AT&T said it activated 2.4 million iPhones in Q3. Motorola said it shipped more than 3 million Razrs worldwide in Q3, but didn’t specify its US sales.

    The iPhone’s success is all the more impressive considering it costs upwards of USD $199, while the RAZR has been virtually free with a signed contract for the past few years.

    It’s US achievements follow recent reports that Apple has overtaken RIM as the number two smartphone vendor globally.

    The success of smartphones – four of the top five are high-end handsets – also underlines the trend in the US market towards more powerful, full-featured devices.

    Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD, said: "The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality."

    Overall domestic handset purchases by adult consumers declined 15 per cent year-over-year in Q3 to 32 million units.

    Consumer handset sales revenue fell 10 per cent to USD $2.9 billion, even as the average selling price rose 6 per cent to USD $88.

    NPD consumer cellphone ranking for 3rd Quarter 2008:

    1. Apple iPhone 3G
    2. Motorola RAZR V3 (all models)
    3. RIM Blackberry Curve (all models)
    4. LG Rumor
    5. LG enV2

  • Motorola sues former executive now with Apple


    Motorola has sued a former executive for allegedly violating a non-compete agreement and threatening to reveal its trade secrets by taking a job with Apple’s iPhone division, the mobile phone maker said in a lawsuit.

    Michael Fenger accepted “millions of dollars in cash, restricted stock units, and stock options” in exchange for agreeing not to join a competitor for two years after leaving Motorola, where he oversaw mobile devices in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the lawsuit said.

    According to the lawsuit filed in Illinois last week he took the iPhone job on March 31, less than a month after leaving Motorola.
    Fenger, who now serves as vice president of global iPhone sales, also employed two high-level Motorola employees who have access to Motorola’s trade secrets and customer relationships, the suit said.

    An Apple spokeswoman said the company had no comment on the lawsuit. Fenger could not be reached for comment.
    Motorola, based in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, is asking the Cook County court to stop Fenger from working for Apple for two years and to bar him from soliciting or hiring Motorola employees or disclosing Motorola’s confidential information.
    It is demanding damages and repayment of stock options given to him in exchange for signing the non-compete agreement.

  • iPhone users "unique" in their mobile behaviour

    Study shows that US iPhone users are five times more likely to access mobile internet than average mobile consumer

    The Apple 3G iPhone will change the mobile behaviour of users and alter consumer expectations for phone capabilities.
    That’s according to a report by analysts Nielsen Mobile which looks at the worldwide state of the mobile web.

    The study says that its growth is due to a combination of increasing numbers of user friendly handsets, higher speed networks and unlimited data packages.
    It then goes on to describe the mobile web as having reached a “critical mass” of users this year.

    But it singles out the iPhone – despite being the second most popular device among mobile users in the US after Motorola’s RAZR – for special mention.

    The report says the device’s impact is amplified by the increased awareness its marketing campaign and buzz has driven.
    “As a result, demand for advanced data services and more robust mobile media-focused handsets has increased.

    “iPhone users, a small but growing segment of the overall mobile audience, are unique in their mobile behaviour.
    “For instance, 82 per cent of iPhone users access the mobile Internet, making them five times as likely to do so as the average mobile consumer.”

    The report goes on to say that, so far, the iPhone population had self-selected through price point as early adopters, describing them as “über media consumers”.
    But it adds that as the price point lowers for this device and penetration increases to include more average consumers, the high data usage of iPhone users may be diluted.

    “At the same time, we expect that the powerful user interface and increasing network speeds will continue to change the behaviours of many iPhone purchasers.
    “Fundamentally, the iPhone, and competitive devices, will also affect consumer expectations for phone capabilities.”

  • Signs that South Korean handset barrier may be lifted offers alluring prospect to foreign manufacturers










    South Korean regulations requiring handset applications to be based on a homegrown technology are largely why the country’s mobile phone market is dominated by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.
    As a result of the WIPI ruling – the acronym stands for wireless internet platform for interoperability – foreign companies have found it too expensive to produce handsets tailored for South Korean consumers.
    Nokia is virtually absent in the country and Motorola is a minor competitor with less than 5 per cent of the market. Apple has kept its iPhone out of the market because of the WIPI rule.
    Yet international handset makers are keen to enter South Korea, one of the world’s most technologically advanced and expensive telecoms markets.
    Now President Lee Myung-bak’s newly elected government has expressed a willingness to soften the WIPI rule, potentially opening the door to foreign handset makers.
    The move comes as criticism of the WIPI regulations grows, based on the argument that it restricts Korean consumers’ choices,
    Some analysts believe that, even if Korea does soften its rules, foreign companies could still find it tough to break the into the Samsung and LG-dominated market.
    But there is no doubt that if the protection barrier is removed there will be no shortage of foreign handset seeking to end their dominance.