Motorola Inc.’s earnings might have been dismal for the quarter, but the vendor hopes that Google’s Android mobile OS and WiMAX will be bright spots.
On the handset side, co-CEO Sanjay Jha said Tuesday on a conference call that as much as 40 percent of Moto’s R&D will be devoted to smartphone development going forward, mostly Android-oriented. Motorola has been behind in the high-end handset game, and has lost much ground ever since its RAZR phone fell from its stature as the No. 1 handset in America.
“Our roadmap has a much greater focus of bringing smartphone functionality to lower tiers with touch and Qwerty and experiences around messaging and mobile Internet,” Jha said. “This allows us to address the largest and fastest growing gross-margin tool in mobile handsets. Our smartphone roadmap will include a variety of devices, many based on the Android operating system. Android is a flexible operating environment and has attracted thousands of developers with it as we believe we can enable differentiated user experience.”
The first handsets will debut in the fourth quarter, he noted.
Meanwhile, the company’s other chief executive, Greg Brown, said Motorola’s home and networks mobility division holds some promise, thanks to ongoing WiMAX deployments worldwide. WiMAX’s impact on Moto’s financials will increase over the course of the year.