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Tag: motorola

  • Nokia Siemens to Acquire Motorola’s Wireless Network Infrastructure

    Nokia Siemens and Motorola jointly announced that the companies have entered into an agreement under which Nokia Siemens will acquire the majority of Motorola’s wireless network infrastructure assets for US $1.2 billion in cash. The companies expect to complete closing activities by the end of 2010.

    According to Nokia Siemens, as part of the transaction, the company expects to gain incumbent relationships with more than 50 operators and to strengthen its position with China Mobile, Clearwire, KDDI, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.

    Nokia Siemens expects that based on revenue, with the addition of the Motorola wireless network infrastructure business, it will become the #3 wireless infrastructure vendor in the United States, the #1 foreign wireless vendor in Japan, and strengthen its current #2 position in the global infrastructure segment.

    Motorola’s networks infrastructure business provides products and services for wireless networks, including GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, WiMAX and LTE. This business is a market leader in WiMAX, with 41 contracts in 21 countries; has a strong global footprint in CDMA with 30 active networks in 22 countries; and a robust GSM installed base, with more than 80 active networks in 66 countries; and excellent traction with LTE early adopters.

    Approximately 7,500 employees are expected to transfer to Nokia Siemens Networks from Motorola’s wireless network infrastructure business when the transaction closes, including large research and development sites in the United States, China and India.

    Motorola retains the iDEN business, substantially all the patents related to its wireless network infrastructure business and other selected assets.

    The companies expect to complete closing activities by the end of 2010 and therefore do not expect the transaction to have any impact on Nokia Siemens Networks’ financial performance in 2010.

    Nokia Siemens and Motorola also are exploring a global relationship in the public safety arena. According to the companies, this relationship would combine Motorola’s leadership in providing solutions to public safety organizations with Nokia Siemens Networks’ commercial LTE solutions.

    "This is an exciting acquisition that I believe has significant benefits for customers, employees and our shareholders," said Rajeev Suri, Chief Executive Officer of Nokia Siemens Networks. "Motorola’s current customers will continue to get world-class support for their installed base and a clear path for transitioning to next generation technologies while employees will join an industry leader with global scale and reach. Nokia Siemens Networks will see the benefits of a deal that is expected to enhance profitability and cash-flow and to have significant upside potential."

    Greg Brown, Co-CEO of Motorola, said: "Motorola is very proud of the operational and financial performance of our Networks business and its employees, who will now become a valuable addition to Nokia Siemens Networks. We are excited to have reached this agreement to combine our Networks team with such an industry leader."

    "This is great news for our customers, our investors and our people and will allow us to sharpen our strategic focus on providing mission and business critical solutions for our government, public safety, and enterprise customers," he added.

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  • Consumer Interest in Smartphones Catapulted to Unprecedented Levels

    ChangeWave‘s latest smart phone survey of 4,028 consumers shows an explosive transformation occurring in consumer demand – resulting in some major new winners and losers for second half 2010.

    The survey – completed June 24th – took a close-up look at consumer demand for the new Apple iPhone 4 and the HTC Droid Incredible, along with the impact these and other offerings are having on the rest of the smart phone industry.

    According to the report, consumer smart phone planned buying going forward is at an all-time high for a ChangeWave survey – with 16.4% of respondents in their latest survey saying they plan on buying a smart phone in the next 90 days.

    ChangeWave note that overall buying plans going forward are significantly higher than they were a year ago at the start of the iPhone 3GS release.

    Smart Phone Market Share

    At the individual manufacturers’ level, the survey findings show a major leap forward for Apple and HTC at the expense of RIM and Motorola.

    In terms of current share, Apple (34%) is up 1-pt since our March survey to an all-time high while RIM (34%) has taken another hit – dropping 4-pts in the past 90 days.

    According to ChangeWave, Android phones continue to have a major impact on the market, with HTC (8%; up 2-pts) and its new Droid Incredible and EVO models the biggest beneficiary. Motorola (6%), who in recent surveys had registered a wave of new demand for their Droid model, remains unchanged in the current survey.

    “But it’s when we look at future buying plans that the huge moves upward for Apple and HTC become most apparent. The new Apple iPhone 4 is driving much of the industry’s growth going forward, with more than one-in-two (52%) respondents who plan to buy a smart phone in the next 90 days saying they’ll get an Apple iPhone – an explosive 21-pt leap over our previous survey,” say the survey authors.

    HTC (19%) also shows a huge improvement going forward – registering a 7-pt jump in terms of future buying plans. On the other hand, Motorola (9%) has declined 7-pts since previously.

    The analysts say that the biggest loser of all in the current survey is RIM (6%), which has registered an 8-pt drop to its lowest level ever in a ChangeWave survey.

    Palm has also been buried in the wave of momentum for Apple and HTC. For the first time in a ChangeWave survey, Palm is registering less than 1% of planned smart phone purchases going forward.

    “The combined momentum of these latest Apple and HTC offerings has catapulted consumer interest in smart phones to unprecedented levels – with consumer planned buying now at an all-time high for a ChangeWave survey,” as the report says.

    “Importantly, the momentum for Apple and HTC is occurring at the expense of other smart phone manufacturers – Motorola and Research in Motion in particular,” the analysts conclude.

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  • Motorola Milestone XT720 Announced

    Motorola has announced MILESTONE XT720, one of the world’s slimmest 8 Megapixel Android smartphones and the first to have a Xenon Flash. This sleek (10.9mm), capacitive touch Android 2.1 phone also features a high definition video experience and enhanced media and mobile internet capabilities.

    It offers 3.7 inch, WVGA (480X854) display, 10x digital zoom, 720p HD camcorder and comes with 8GB microSD card (included inbox; expandable up to 32GB) as well as with a smart image capture (includes easy panorama, face detection, multi-shot (six shots in a row), face filter, red eye reduction and camera shake prevention).

    According to Motorola, MILESTONE XT720 is designed to deliver high speed web-browsing and it has the capacity to support up to eight open browser windows.

    A suite of Google mobile applications including Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube are also integrated onto the device, as well as Motorola’s MOTONAV turn by turn navigation.

    The new Motorola also supports management of multiple accounts and document editing.

    Ralf Gerbershagen, vice president and general manager for Motorola’s Mobile Devices business in Western Europe said, "MILESTONE XT720 is one of the most powerful phones in Motorola’s current smartphone range. Slim, sophisticated and technically savvy, MILESTONE XT720 is a high performance device designed for those who are actively engaged in both their work and social lives.

    "With MILESTONE XT720, Motorola has taken yet another step towards eliminating the barriers for consumers to creating and consuming media on the go."

  • Motorola: TD-LTE is Now a Commercial Reality

    Motorola has successfully deployed the world’s first indoor over-the-air (OTA) TD-LTE showcase network at the Expo Center at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Together with China Mobile, Motorola is demonstrating end-to-end TD-LTE solutions at the Information and Communication Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.

    Delegates are able to experience the real-life performance of TD-LTE via USB dongles, including video streaming, remote monitoring, video stream session and high-speed internet browsing.

    According to Motorola, a single TD-LTE USB dongle can stream 24 simultaneous video streams while supporting very high-speed internet browsing applications, at a total data rate of 20Mbps.

    A TD-LTE carrier in 20MHz can support transmission of a few hundred video streams simultaneously. Motorola claims that in the near future, TD-LTE subscribers will then be able to access a collection of high-bandwidth and low-latency internet applications including mobile TV, on-demand videos and video blogging anywhere.

    At the show, a two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle carrying a camera and a laptop showcases real-time TD-LTE performance on the move. Live video captured by the moving camera can be viewed on other laptops and the main screen within the demonstration area via a TD-LTE USB dongle. Visitors are able to set up a video stream session between the laptop on the vehicle and the laptops within the demonstration area.

    The company informed that they will also integrate and launch the TD-LTE USB dongle that supports 2.3GHz at the event.

    According to Motorola, interest in TD-LTE continues to grow due to several key factors:

    • The tremendous growth of data use while mobile falling prices, more variety and improved ease of use in end user devices
    • Additional spectrum is necessary for serving more users
    • TDD spectrum traditionally auctioned for lower cost/radio frequency/population
    • Global and local roaming between FDD and TDD networks, allowing both networks to be used in the same geographic area.

    In effect, this ability to roam between FDD LTE and TD-LTE means operators can use TD-LTE networks to augment their FDD LTE network for more capacity or other applications such as video broadcasting, while operators choosing to use TD-LTE as their "main" network can still offer their subscribers the ability to roam to other operators’ FDD LTE networks in different countries.

    "We see the growing interest in TD-LTE as the technology delivers increased capacity and a lower cost per bit. Motorola is the leader in TD-LTE through trials and engagements with various operators around the world. The selection by China Mobile today once again demonstrates the reliability and maturity of our TD-LTE solution," said Dr. Mohammad Akhtar, corporate vice president and general manager, Motorola Networks business in Asia Pacific.

    “TD-LTE is now a commercial reality, making LTE a truly encompassing global technology standard,” he added.

  • comScore: Motorola and RIM Lead U.S. Smartphone Market

    comScore, a firm that measures the digital world, released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month period between October 2009 and January 2010.

    The report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.9 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 43.0 percent market share.

    OEM Market Share

    In the 3 month average ending in January, 234 million Americans were mobile subscribers ages 13 and older, with device manufacturer Motorola ranking as the top OEM with 22.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers.

    LG ranked second with 21.7 percent share, followed by Samsung (21.1 percent share), Nokia (9.1 percent share) and RIM (7.8 percent share).

    Smartphone Platform Market Share

    According to the report, 42.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones in an average month during the November to January period, up 18 percent from the August through October period.

    RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 43.0 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, rising 1.7 percentage points versus three months earlier.

    Apple ranked second with 25.1 percent share (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by Microsoft at 15.7 percent, Google at 7.1 percent (up 4.3 percentage points), and Palm at 5.7 percent. Google’s Android platform continues to see rapid gains in market share.

    Mobile Content Usage

    In an average month during the measured period, 63.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.5 percentage points versus three months prior.

    Browsers were used by 28.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 1.8 percentage points), while subscribers who played games made up 21.7 percent (up 0.4 percentage points).

    Access of social networking sites or blogs experienced strong gains in the past three months, growing 3.3 percentage points to 17.1 percent of mobile subscribers, as the report shows.

  • Motorola Partners with Microsoft for Search and Maps Services

    Motorola announced a global alliance with Microsoft to deploy Bing services on Motorola devices powered by Android.

    This new offering, launching in China on smartphones in Q1, will provide consumers a choice when using search and map functions on their Android-based devices.

    This collaboration will bring a pre-loaded Bing bookmark on the mobile browser and an enhanced search widget with Bing integration.

    According to Motorola, by enabling users to customize their devices and select their own search provider, the company, with help from Microsoft, is expanding the capabilities and range of services currently offered in the marketplace and opening the doors for increased personalization.

    According to Christy Wyatt, corporate vice president of software and services at Motorola Mobile Devices, “the consumer choice is one of the most critical components to ensuring a rich and seamless client experience".

    He said the addition of Bing services to their Android-based smartphones in China is “another important step in empowering Motorola’s end-users."

    "Mobile devices continue to be a critical place for customers to access location-based services such as local search and mapping," stated Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Services Division at Microsoft.

    Search and Maps capabilities through Microsoft will initially be available in China, starting in Q1 2010, through either pre-load or over-the-air updates for devices already in market.

  • More than Half of Consumers Utilize Mobile Phones for In-Store Holiday Shopping Activities

    A recent Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions annual research study of holiday shoppers identified that more than half (51 percent) of consumers across 11 countries used their mobile phones for in-store activities such as comparison shopping and getting peer feedback, product information and coupons.

    Motorola’s analysts think it signals the increasing importance for retailers to adopt mobile shopper technology strategies to remain competitive.

    According to the study, the usage and impact of mobile shopping technologies exploded during the 2009 holiday shopping season. The survey identified that 64 percent of Gen Y (age 18 to 34) shoppers used their mobile phones for in-store shopping-related activities during the holiday season.

    “Retailers, financial service institutions, advertisers and technology vendors are taking advantage of mobile platforms to attract this increasingly technologically savvy generation of shoppers,” says Motorola.

    The company also says all surveyed age-segments cited interest in next-generation retail technologies, 2demonstrating the growing consumer demand for real-time information to make better informed shopping decisions.”

    The research shows that when in-store associates were equipped with mobile technologies, such as two-way radios and handheld mobile computers, surveyed shoppers reported a better experience due to the use of the devices (59 percent and 56 percent respectively).

    Frank Riso, senior director of retail solutions, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions, said, “By utilizing mobile technologies, consumers have become empowered, better informed and more critical shoppers. Retailers need to establish near-term strategies to provide product information, stock availability, discounts and coupons directly to shoppers to help them to remain competitive.”

  • U.S. Smartphone Market – Only the Strong Will Survive

    According to the recent Canalys Smartphone Analysis, the smart phone market continues to increase as a proportion of the overall mobile phone market in the US.

    Despite a drop in market growth to 6% in Q3 2009, down from 37% in Q2 2009, smart phones represented 26% of all mobile phones shipped in Q3 2009. This is up from 24% in Q2 2009 and will continue to rise in coming quarters.

    The top two smart phone vendors increased their combined market share in Q3 to 76.3%. Research in Motion (RIM) held 48.1% while Apple held 28.2%.

    “Despite what looks like a ‘closed shop’, with continued growth expected in the US smart phone market there is still plenty to play for, and new products are coming thick and fast from the competition,” the report says.

    Four other smartphone platforms in the US market today – Android, Symbian S60, webOS and Windows Mobile – represented only 23.7% of the market in Q3.

    Canalys claims the challenge for the handset vendors on the multivendor platforms is to “differentiate their products, especially as the market gets busier, while also providing competition to Apple and RIM and choice to the consumer.”

    Canalys also thinks that with an increasing number of Android and Windows Mobile devices launching, there can be little, by looking at the specifications, to choose between one and another on the same platform. “A key product differentiator will be seen in the software and the user interface. In short it is all about the user experience, particularly how the user organises their favourite applications, content, messages, people and places,” analysts say.

    Canalys says Verizon needs to fight back against the iPhone’s tremendous success and will be hoping the new Android devices (Motorola’s Droid and HTC’s Droid Eris) will “light up its somewhat uninspiring consumer device portfolio.” Demand for Android devices will be helped by the addition of Google Maps Navigation on Android 2.0.

    Analysts reminds us of the fact that AT&T is the only one of the big four US mobile operators not yet to range an Android device.

    RIM’s US device shipments were up 27.5% in Q3. Around 3.8 million net new subscriber accounts were added worldwide in its fiscal quarter and profits beat analyst expectations. According to Canalys estimates, RIM, with only the Storm, held a 2.2% share of US touch-screen smart phones in Q3 2009. As its entry-level and mid-range (mostly keyboard-based) devices increasingly come up against new touchscreen Android devices, buyers’ appetite for BlackBerry devices will be tested.

    The iPhone remains the leading consumer smart phone in the US. The response to the iPhone 3G S was ‘tremendous’ and ‘very surprising’ according to Apple, so much so that many international markets had limited supply for several weeks.

    Canalys says with each software release the iPhone gets more ‘CIO friendly’. According to Apple, the iPhone is being ‘deployed or piloted’ at more than 50% of Fortune 100 companies and is doing well in higher education institutions and government agencies, though increased device security will still be needed for broad deployment to be considered in government.

    The report shows that US smart phone share of HTC, the leading worldwide manufacturer of Android smart phones, supplying T-Mobile and Vodafone (in EMEA) as well as selling under the HTC brand, has hovered around the 5-7% mark for five quarters.

    “HTC devices are ranged by the big four US mobile operators. These relationships and the installed base of customers it has are crucial to HTC, and Microsoft. From being the first, HTC is now one of many Android device vendors,” says Canalys.

    According to the research group, Motorola “rose from the ashes” of the smart phone market recently with the announcement of the new Android-based smart phones, the CLIQ with T-Mobile and the Droid with Verizon.

    “If the CLIQ and the Droid do anything like as well as the RAZR did it will give Motorola a solid base for 2010. Working on Android means that building its own app store need not be a top priority for Motorola.,” according to Canalys.

    They also think Nokia really needs a big hit in the US (“It has failed to get its most popular Nseries devices ranged by the leading US mobile operators and it has thus far failed to make a significant impression with its Ovi services in the US”), Palm needs the old volumes back (“Mobile operators must be convinced that they can profit from ranging Palm webOS devices. Palm needs their commitment”), and Samsung has lagged in smart phones, although it still leads the overall US mobile phone market and continues to roll out new handsets with all leading mobile operators at a “blistering pace.”

    Canalys notices that there are more vendors planning to launch smart phones in the US in the next few months: Dell, Kyocera Wireless, LG (Android handsets) and Acer (Android and Windows phones).

    “They will all be faced with the same challenges: getting their smart phones ranged by the mobile operators and capturing the imagination of consumers. The mobile operators can only range, subsidise and promote a certain number of devices. As Apple did, new entrants need to come up with something special, and that is no easy feat,” the report concludes.

  • Motorola Becomes a First-Mover Again

    “Android provides differentiation today, but may not tomorrow,” says recent Canalys report on Motorola’s market strategy.

    During its Q3 earnings call on 29 October, Motorola’s Co-CEO Sanjay Jha announced the company’s quarterly profit of $12 million, up from a $397 million loss a year ago.

    Canalys analysts state this was primarily driven by aggressive cost-cutting and the improvement was reflected in a stock price rise of more than 12%.

    Despite the overall positive result, the troubles faced by Motorola’s handset division continue. During the quarter it recorded sales of $1.7 billion, but made a loss of $183 million, shipping just 13.6 million devices.

    More positively, less than two months after announcing the CLIQ, Motorola introduced its second Android smart phone – the DROID – earlier in the week. The DROID is the first announced phone to support Android 2.0, with all the enhancements that brings.

    DROID will be available in the US exclusively from Verizon Wireless from 6 November. It will cost $199.99 with a new two-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate.

    According to the report, Verizon is pitching the DROID aggressively against Apple’s iPhone and the device fills an important gap in the operator’s smart phone portfolio.

    “For Motorola, this partnership is an invaluable opportunity to rebuild its status within the handset market and draw attention to its Android-centric strategy,” it says.

    For the past year, Motorola has put significant effort into streamlining its platforms, having previously produced an array of smart phones on Windows Mobile, Symbian and various forms of Linux.

    The company aims to reduce its reliance on feature phones and will hope to be able to push Android down into higher volume, but more price-sensitive segments over time.

    Canalys claims the quick rollout of DROID following the CLIQ demonstrates that the company is moving in the right direction, having suffered from portfolio stagnation following the earlier tremendous success of the RAZR.

    Both the DROID and the CLIQ may do well in the US in the short term, but there can be no room for complacency. Over the coming months the market will see a huge influx of Android devices from top-tier handset brands as well as from vendors very focused on delivering devices to operators at lower cost.

    “For Motorola to maintain momentum it will need to be able to differentiate itself from the many other Android products that will be available in 2010, and it will need to do this on the international stage. China will be critical. Motorola has enjoyed success with its Linux devices there in the past and it will need to replicate this success and build upon it with its Android devices.”

    Analysts conclude that the company will also need to ensure that the devices it produces compete on quality as well as price, ensuring that a focus on getting Android into the middle-tier of the market does not result in compromises that lead to products that deliver an inferior user experience.

  • Google Enters Navigation Market

    It is now official and will completely change the mobile and PND navigation market. Google announced Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 devices.

    It comes with 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting, but unlike most navigation systems, the Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of the phone’s internet connection, as Google claims.

    The features possible because Google Navigation is connected to the internet are:
    • recent map and business data: phone automatically gets the most up-to-date maps and business listings from Google Maps — there is no need to buy map upgrades or update the device;
    • search by voice: searching destinations using google voice search (speak your destination instead of typing);
    • traffic view: live traffic data over the internet (a traffic indicator light in the corner of the screen glows green, yellow or red, depending on the current traffic conditions along the route);
    • search along route: searching for a specific business along the route (you can also turn on popular layers, such as gas stations, restaurants or parking);
    • satellite view: the same satellite imagery as Google Maps on the desktop;
    • Street View: shows the turn as you’ll see it, with the route overlaid (Navigation automatically switches to Street View as you approach your destination).

    There is also car dock mode available for certain devices – placing a phone in a car dock activates a special mode (new user interface with, e.g. much larger iconography) that makes it easy to use the device at arm’s length.

    The first phone to have Google Maps Navigation is Motorola’s Droid. It hits the U.S. market next week (Nov. 6th) for $199 on contract (after a $100 mail-in rebate) and will be available from Verizon with voice plan starting at $39 and a web and email plan for $29 per month.

    Like other Google Maps features, Navigation is free.

    Here is the official Google video