Analyst: Motorola may exit handset business
by Thomas Ricker 
posted Jan 29th 2008 at 6:32AM
Hey, that's what Nomura International analyst, Richard Windsor, told his clients in a note published this morning. Instead of handsets, Moto may choose to refocus on becoming an "enterprise and government company." While on a roll, Richard also raised speculation that a Chinese company might scoop up the troubled Moto before calling it "unlikely as those vendors don't have much of an idea how to fix Motorola's problems." Problems he attributes to the platform and software, not hardware. Man Moto, what a long hard fall it's been since your 2005 RAZR heyday.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rpa @ Jan 29th 2008 8:45AM
Not surprising....I took a look at the new Z8 model at a shop in HK and was shocked at the poor quality. The plastic felt cheap and the keypad looked like it was stamped out by hand. The Z8 is not in the same league as Nokia quality.
MIKE @ Jan 29th 2008 10:16AM
Its ashame really, I mean Motorola's name used to stand for something. They used to be an inovator in new deisgns and technology. The startac series, and V60 to name a few, are classic examples of that.
As much as we all come here and rant about Motorola I hope they make a comeback. Afterall their designs however flawed they are have influnced the design of every other cell phone maker in the industry. The RAZR may be a little drawn out but look at all the handsets it inspired from the other manufacturers. You gotta hand it ot Moto for that at least.
Best of luck to you Moto.
Constable Odo @ Jan 30th 2008 9:28PM
Curse them for crapping all over their long-time investors. Throwing away money on a CEO that helped ruin their handset business. Probably they'll fire a whole lot of Symbol Technologies employees. Motorola really ran their company down into the ground in such a short time.
Anything that will get investors back some money is good enough for me. Refocus on set-top boxes or scanners or something. They'd been buying up companies yet nothing ever comes from it. Just more excess baggage and money down the toilet.
Probably cursing them is of no use either. They've already been cursed since 2005.
Octothorpe @ Jan 29th 2008 11:29AM
I for one cannot wait for Motorola to drop out of the cellphone business. Starting with the Razr (and perhaps earlier) their phones have just been poor quality.
M @ Jan 29th 2008 10:04PM
I've owned 2 razrs (one GSM and one CDMA) and I've never found them to be poor quality. Plus many of my friends have razrs and never complained about the quality.
just my 2 cents
The D Train @ Jan 29th 2008 12:12PM
I analyze that Motorola will drop out of selling anything worth while, and move on to selling Fishing Poles. Since analysts can say whatever drivel comes to their mind, it is 100% true this will happen in aprox. 4 years, and is newsworthy.
Dave @ Jan 29th 2008 5:19PM
Do you guys work for Nokia or something? I've had a Z3 for almost a year now and it has taken every beating I have given it with zero quality problems. It is a very sturdy reliable phone.
zephxiii @ Jan 29th 2008 5:41PM
Moto's handsets aren't THAT bad. As phones, they usually are stellar performers (I've had a few of them, as well as nokias and HTCs). Synergy is bit outdated, by its not terrible on my v3xx, the only thing i hate about it is itap (rather have t9).
mikeed @ Jan 29th 2008 8:34PM
the thing about moto is that they draw their new "innovations" out for way too long. i guess it's their way of doing business but that's how they've always been.
if i remember correctly they came out with the startac and put the "mobile" back into "mobile phones", but what came after that? the RAZR didn't succeed the startac for almost a full DECADE.
it's true that motorola influenced the way other manufacturers considered their own designs but in the world of business, change can only take you up or down... staying still shouldn't be an option.