Motorola CEO talks smartphones, tablets and 4G; alludes to Q1 Verizon iPhone launch

By on Dec 2, 2010 at 10:55 AM
mobile December 2, 2010

Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha delivered a keynote yesterday at the Credit Suisse 2010 Technology Conference, and it was quite a doozy. Topics covered included the future of Motorola’s smartphone business, tablets, 4G and even a new competitive threat coming soon to Verizon Wireless. Here are some highlights:

  • Motorola Mobility will separate from Motorola Solutions with $3.5 billion, no debt, no pension liabilities and 16,500 patents already in its portfolio. In other words, Jha is very excited about the future of Motorola’s mobile business.
  • Motorola Mobility will definitely participate in the tablet space, but it will continue to focus the bulk of its efforts on smartphones. The company will release both 7-inch and 10-inch tablets in the near future, and it views both product ranges as being “quite meaningful.”
  • Motorola will focus on software differentiation with its tablets, targeting the enterprise, international and retail market places. Jha views retail as a big opportunity for tablets.
  • Where smartphones are concerned, Motorola will continue to focus on top-tier and mid-tier devices — mid-tier devices have sold in greater volume internationally, while top-tier phones found success in the U.S.
  • When asked about 4G smartphones, Jha responded, “I will have 4G devices in the marketplace early next year.”
  • In discussing Q1 2011 guidance, Jha said first quarters are always down for Motorola and Q1 2011 will be no different. Jha also said, however, that there will potentially be a new “competitive dynamic” developing at Verizon Wireless — Motorola’s premier carrier partner in the U.S. — in the first quarter next year that could have a significant negative impact on Motorola’s first quarter. It certainly doesn’t take a decoder ring to figure out that he’s talking about the Verizon iPhone.
  • Despite the aforementioned speed bump, which could no doubt be huge, Jha is confident that Motorola Mobility will deliver profitability for the full year as it continues to diversify its product portfolio to combat the threat of a potential Verizon iPhone.

Hit the read link to listen to Jha’s complete keynote.

Thanks, ckeegan

Read

Tags:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
55 Comments

Related Articles

  • http://twitter.com/Aleis joe

    seriously dont think a verizon iphone is a threat anymore.
    considering the tab is still selling well sitting right next to an ipad in the store.

    customer: what device is better?
    sales rep: well android is just like what u get here on the tab. you can do much more than you could do on an iphone.
    customer: hmm…

    • Jake

      I know exactly what you mean. I get customers all the time asking about the iPhone and i quickly get them into a Droid X or and Incredible. Apple is overrated and people are too naive to believe anything is better.

      • Donny

        Your customers must be idiots if they have to let a sales rep persuade them. Maybe you should sell cars if you can BS that well.

      • Anonymous

        You do know that not everyone stays on top of the smartphone market as much as the people who read these sites right? I would say we only make up about 20% of the market. I could see the other 80% easily going into a store completely clueless. Seriously, how many people that keep up with BGR, Engadget, etc even buy their phones in a store anymore?

    • http://twitter.com/khaminsenz Feed Back

      Android’s gains in market share are coming primarily from inroads into RIM, Microsoft and Palm if you really look at the numbers. If availability of the iPhone were greater you can be assured people would be snapping up the device.

      People like simplicity and Apple trumps in that category. Android is moving in that direction but is not there yet. It is still a device which takes a certain amount of tinkering and tolerance to appreciate.

      The iPhone is ALWAYS a threat and any mobile phone producer who says otherwise is simply not being forthright.

      There is still nothing in the marketplace that truly compares to the iPad. Until another producer sells 30% as many as the iPad i’m not willing to say any differently.

    • Anonymous

      So u lie to them…

    • Donny

      What exactly is the advantage to the average consumer with android? Ooooo shiny moving background! That’s about the only thing I see and I have a Droid X. But I don’t hate Apple or work for Verizon so I don’t see things the way you guys do.

      • http://twitter.com/Aleis joe

        i have a shinny moving background, phonemypc to control my home automation system, freedom to customize even every icon on my phone, ability to wifi tether, true multitasking, can overclock it…should i go on?

      • Anonymous

        I don’t know, I kinda like the ability to automatically updating content on one of 7 homescreens. Stocks, sports scores, facebook feed, news, etc. I put that way above live wallpapers for the average consumer. Even above that, would be options. Even above that, would be the consumer having actual options in hardware.

      • Larrythedude

        Well, let’s see, first, you have Flash on Android, and can navigate to different websites to view content without having to shell out cash to Apple. Second, Android handsets will speed past the iPhone in terms of hardware improvements because of the competition among different manufacturers is intense, meaning they are going to try to outdo each other with better specs and more features for consumers out of the box. This is good for iPhone owners too, as Apple would have never allowed Skyfire (w/ the ability to view some Flash websites) without Android OS climbing up the ranks. Already, most high end Android smartphones have more features than the iPhone, including front facing cameras (Evo 4G, etc).

        I have a Droid X, and some of my friends have iPhones. They are amazed at the things I can do with my X, that they can’t with their iPhones. About the only thing I envy from the iPhone right now are some games, and the screen on the iPhone 4. Other than that, my Droid X has it beat by a mile. Wifi hotspot (which I’ve used, to share wifi w/ iPad owning friends), Flash to view tv shows, changing launchers like its nobody’s business, making the phone my own, as opposed to Apple’s. Many of my iPhone owning friends are also jealous of Google Navigation, Google Sky, Google Reader integration.

        The iPhone is a great phone, no doubt, but I like the freedom that an Android phone like the X gives me, and this is despite all the complaints about the locked bootloader. To boot, though I have not done it yet, I have a couple of friends that rooted their Droid X’s and opened up even more possibilities. I’m still waiting to see what Android 2.3 brings before rooting. But I like the fact that I can do so many things out of the box w/ my DX that others can’t do with iPhone. One particular sore point, however, is the fact that you need to root, in order to be able to take screen captures on Android, whereas that comes out of the box on iPhone.

      • MicroNix

        I’m seriously doubting you have a Droid X. There is not one person I know with one that is not happy with it. The X is an awesomely built phone and Android inherently has more capabilities (just with widgets) than iOS. In owning both Apple and Android devices, I’m not seeing why everyone is peeing in their pants over a Verizon iPhone for.

        It will be interesting if the iPhone does come out for Verizon to finally see if it is AT&T’s network, or the iPhone that causes the dropped calls. It could be bad news for Apple if they release a Verizon iPhone and it drops as many calls on Verizon as AT&T…

    • TechManMike

      You’re joking right? It may be selling “well”…..but is it selling like the ipad did is the question? the iPad sold what the Galaxy tab sold in one month, in two weeks, if even that. Not only that, but then it continued to sell even more than it did in the months prior, in the months after that. Will the Gal. Tab do that? And, you’re comparison is not fair in that you’re comparing tablet sales to phone sells.

      The thing you have to think about is that when people walk into a CELL PHONE store, they are thinking more about buying phones then they are tablets. They are more likely to walk into an apple store if they want to buy an iPad. People going to the Verizon store are going to buy a phone, and if the iPhone is available I can almost guarantee you that that is the phone they will buy. People want the iPhone by name, And even people that aren’t necessarily tech savvy will buy a Verizon iPhone because they recognize the name. Nobody comes in asking for a ‘samsung galaxy s’, they come in and ask “what is the best phone you got?” and they end up with an android because in terms of Verizon’s Smartphones and Feature phones, that’s all that’s available.

  • milrtime83

    Sounds about right as far as timing goes…..Get a bunch of people to get the iphone 4 right when it comes out and then get them to want to upgrade a few months later when the iphone 5 comes out in the summer.

  • Anonymous

    I just wish I knew his definition of “near future” regarding tablets. I’m ready, but I would have loved the write-off before the end of the year.

  • http://twitter.com/bkwmiata Brian Washington

    Verizon iPhone is still a no. He’s more likely to be referring to WP7 which is much more likely.

    • GalaxyTab

      First thing I thought. WP7 is due on Verizon next year and is a “competitive dynamic” because Moto aren’t making any WP7 handsets.

      • NoFoam

        Great post.

    • Anonymous

      So you think this guy is referring to WP7? Wow. Motorola Droids must be really crappy if a platform which has sold 150K units in a month is going to result in a significant negative impact on their performance. Ouch.

      • GalaxyTab

        People thought Android would never gain ground on the iPhone when the G1 was launched and look at it now.

        Windows Phone 7 is brand new OS with a hell of a lot of potential which can also be priced competitively against any Android handset (as it already is).

        I wouldn’t dismiss WP7 just yet, it wont be at 150k units per month forever.

      • NoFoam

        Seriously. WP7 phones are a big deal. Any smartphone that is not a Droid is a big deal.

    • Anonymous

      Somehow I seriously doubt Jha, or any other Android handset manufacturer, is too concerned about Verizon getting WP7 devices. It is an unproven OS. Especially not a platform that could be predicted (by Moto) to have a huge financial impact on their Q1 profit margin.

      • Dan

        Agreed. No customization, no cut and paste = fail. Microsoft was way late to the game and there are a ton of Windows 5, 6, and 6.5 users who haven’t forgotten about the crappy handsets they were sold not too long ago.

    • NoFoam

      Great point.

  • Sin City

    Props to BG for missing out probably the most important part of this keynote.

    Verizon Wireless competitive actions in the 1Q will have a huge financial impact on Motorola during that period.Motorola is working to minimize the problem by expanding its smartphone distribution with additional U.S. carriers including AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T), Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) and T-Mobile USA.

    “We’re diversifying amongst carriers in the United States,” Jha said. “You will see a much broader portfolio with AT&T. At Sprint, I hope to be able to deliver more products, and at T-Mobile we’ve of course had a relationship for a long period of time. ”

    About effing time.

  • Sonya

    I really don’t think the iPhone is coming next month for Verizon, maybe June. But let’s be honest, when the iPhone does come to Verizon the majority of people will not care about Android anymore. (I have a Droid)

    • fukpeas

      I don’t know about that.. I have an X and will not want to switch to an iPhone.. Until Apple fixes iPhone’s crappy notification system and lets me install my own apps, no iPhone for me. Oh and they should drop iTunes too.. Bleh.

      • Sonya

        You are not the majority though. The average consumer will not care about the terrible notification system, lack of widgets, closed OS, etc… They will see iPhone and go for it.

      • fukpeas

        True! What a shame!

      • Anonymous

        My bro has a Droid and wants an iPhone.. You can not want it but other sure do.

      • MicroNix

        The funny part of it is that after the Droid X, EVO and new Samsung phones came out, I am beginning to see the opposite effect. Those that have had iPhones are ditching them for an Android device. Some where pretty bitter when Stevie came along and made their 3GS phones work like dog crap with iOS 4. And of course there’s no way to go back to what worked. I think that is fragmentation happening in the iPlatform!

        More than one person I know with an iPhone is or already has gone Android.

      • Anonymous

        We run in different circles @Micronix. I dig androids but I currently have a 3Gs and minus text tones, my phone is straight. I’ll get the i4 when I need too, and my people with androids have em cuz they either don’t want to switch their service to AT&T.

      • NoFoam

        Just like you can’t install non-iPhone apps on iOS, you can’t install non-Android apps on Android OS. The difference is mostly the distribution method.

    • Donny

      I have the Droid X and though I like some of it features, I will be first in line whenever its released. I came to Verizon for the service, not Android. I miss the stability that came with the iphone.

  • Bob

    dont lock the bootloader of your phone jackoff

  • http://twitter.com/khaminsenz Feed Back

    “new competitive dynamic” possiblities

    1.) Early LTE phone sets
    2.) Any number of smartphones on the upsurge sporting AMOLED displays and new graphic chips [i.e. gaming --playstation phone??]
    3.) A possible overlap between buyers looking for small form factor tablets and smartphones
    4.) Verizon iPhone

    I think he is actually referring to a combination of all of these things. If there really is going to be a Verizon iPhone, then missing the Christmas shopping period is a massive mistake IMO. They should have targeted Q4 2010 not Q1 2011.

    • iPhoneGuru

      By waiting after Christmas Verizon gets a double boost.
      1 – (Before Christmas) Holiday shoppers.
      2 – (After Christmas) Massive influx of people jumping to Verizon and all the people switching within Verizon.

      Everyone knows that the Verizon iPhone will have a huge sales impact, so why mix and dilute that with holiday sales, when you can have two huge influxes.

      Not to mention, think of all the people who will just get a phone this holiday season only to pay cancellation fees to switch to the iPhone in a month or so.

      • Andrew

        Exactly. If it is the iPhone, Verizon would never shoot themselves in the foot by releasing it for Holiday 2010. If they did, think of all the phones they already have in inventory that they have spent MILLIONS to market over the past year.

  • Dave

    From the ‘piss ant’ single user perspective I’m helping Motorola have the negative impact (“that could have a significant negative impact on Motorola’s first quarter”) on their fourth quarter by returning the most shining example of the biggest piece of shit phone I’ve ever used, the Droid 2 Global. If you want a phone that will lock up or reboot on you when making or receiving calls or setting the alarm, won’t recognize a 16GB uSD card from a Droid 1, has the most piss poor audio I or any others that listened to the phone (and the two replacement D2Gs) have ever heard, doesn’t keep its Corporate Calendar and Mail up to date and is a battery hog to boot, then this is the phone for you! Too bad your current company makes such crap Mr. Jha, maybe with the new company you can hire some better hardware and software people and test a phone a little before bringing it to market and wasting everyone’s time troubleshooting the piece of shit.

  • Scott

    Bring me the Olympus as soon as you can, and you’ve just gained yourself a customer. Finally, a device that will and should sway me from my iPhone. And it’s made by Motorola. Too bad for HTC not dropping a nice Android phone on AT&T.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-Collins/1374827543 Steve Collins

    just dont lock down the phones, and make another droid, aka Vanilla developer phone for VZW Sprint and T-Mobile with a dual core, front and rear camera, and have 2 versions of the phone one with a keyboard one w/o and Motorola will have a clear winner.

  • 1T2dirtnap

    Still in denial I see, its been reported by a number of reputable sources, people that know, it’s coming Q1 (March) 2011 to Verizon. Anything else would not be “competitive dynamic” developing at Verizon, it’s definitely not some WP7 device. I’m overly positive Motorola ain’t worried about WP7.

  • grrr

    I don’t have any intentions of ever buying another Motorola device. This stupid locked bootloader nonsence is what killed it for me. I want to run cyanogenmod on my android device and that will probably be more likely with an HTC.

    The Droid 1 was and still is the best phone I’ve ever owned. That thing is built like a tank because moto makes awesome hardware. If they ever release another device that is as developer friendly as that was, I may reconsider.

    If the Verizon iPhone is not LTE compatable, it’ll be nothing more than an iPod touch to me

    • http://twitter.com/mfg68 Matt Galo

      You took the words right out of my mouth.

      However, it seems like HTC wasn’t very “hacker-friendly” with the G2. Just give me a Nexus-device on Verizon and I’ll be happy as a pig in shit.

  • http://twitter.com/grahamfluet Graham Fluet

    Are you sure he’s talking about the iPhone? RIM is all but confirmed to be launching a Touchscreen phone on Verizon that is LTE and has specs similar to the PlayBook. It’s running the new QNX OS, with a User Interface by TAT.And the iPhone isn’t really a new “competitive dynamic” as it’s been around for a while. It would merely be a bit more of a threat if it was available on Verizon’s network.

    • http://twitter.com/mfg68 Matt Galo

      Lol…And it’s got a 3ghz processor, full HD screen, and can make breakfast. It’s easy to make speculation sound like fact, right?

      You just found out about the TAT acquisition this morning, yet you KNOW it’s in their upcoming Verizon device. lol

    • Mdulrich

      It will be a new competive dynamic when Verizon soon begins to sell it.Blackberry is yesterdays smartphone.

  • Neumahn

    Is that Caesar Milan?

  • Jjones0202

    Bring on the Droid T2 LTE and anyone would be a fool to buy the iPhone…

  • Anonymous

    It has to be an iPhone coming to Verizon and/or more likely the fact that Motorola won’t be the maker of Verizon’s flagship handset anymore. It will be Samsung with the Nexus S handset along with the new LG Tegra handset. No matter how much Verizon has tried to fool it’s customers in selling the Droid, they still have had a long relationship with LG and, they’re pension for cheaply made top sellers. It’s not about quality handsets as much as quantity and savings with Verizon. Take that top handset spot from any manufacturer and, it’ll hurt any phone manufacturer to be on one carrier. That would cause any of them to diversify carriers.

  • Anonymous

    If the iPhone does go to Verizon Q1 2011 there is only one phrase I can think of:

    “Lunch eaten”

    As I have stated and will continue to state:

    “Android has peaked”

    Proof? All the companies that are building Android phones are now making Windows Phone 2007 also. When you add another player to the mix some companies are going to lose share. Why won’t Apple lose share you ask, because people that buy iPhone are showing a satisfactory score of 90% plus.

    Apple’s only competition is Apple, it’s been this way and will continue to be this way unless Apple decides to be a follower and do what everyone else does. The problem though, if Apple is Apple they couldn’t follow everyone else because everyone follows Apple.
    Don’t like that statement? Too bad, that’s the way it is. You can argue it and that is your right but the facts are what the facts are.

    • Goofan (aka Apple Hater)

      You forget us Goofans (aka Apple Haters!) We will NEVER EVER like an Apple product. No matter how good or revolutionary it is. We HATE Apple, their products and most of all their fanboys. I know, we have no logic there, but that’s us. We are the smartest people alive and as such recognize and deeply believe that Apple fanboys such as you have the lowest IQ’s recorded. On the other hand, we have the highest IQ’s (I think we average 200!)

      • marco4

        So from what I see here is that Goofan is an Apple Lover acting like a Google fan to make then look stupid??

  • MotoRazrUser

    I will believe that VZ is getting the iPhone when Sir Stevie announces it. Until then all you vz droid customers keep talking about how great droid is and that it “Does”. If VZ does get it, i’ll enjoy watching your Army of Google fans flock to a much better device. Don’t believe me? Google it.

    (insert “Apple Fanboy” reply here)

  • ddd

    Moto needs to follow through on phone updates. My cliq XT is still waiting to be updated to Android 2.1. I am at the point where I may never purchase another Motorola phone.

  • Anonymous

    Jonathan Geller I need your valuable opinion. I spent several hours yesterday (Sunday) at a AT&T Retail Store with the Motorola Atrix. As you may know the phone display is a smidge under resolution to the IPhone 4- it lacked the “Punch” I thought the Display would or should have- is it because of Android 2.2? The dual core and Nvidia graphics accelerator should have given the Atrix a absolutely stunning display, it was “Just Ok” display, but nowhere near the retina display of Apple. I am resigned or guessing to think that this may be a Android software thing-

    The Battery time appears good, I ran the Motorola “Flash Demo Site” about 9 times, ran Kobe Bryant’s “Nike Black Mamba” 5 min Trailer sever times was all over the web, Huge Multi Media Sites, and I didn’t ding the Battery at all, which was very surprising-

    There is no question the Phone is very fast, actually at this point, I’ve never held a faster phone in my hand, we downloaded Extreme Labs Speed test, “Blink” it was done, actually initially I thought the download aborted- No such luck, Its fast-

    So the Bottom line, The Display worries me. On the other Hand I’m hearing the Display on the Xoom is Gorgeous- but their running Gingerbread 3.0- I remember there was talk that Gingerbread required some very High Tech Hardware in place, Dual Core, Nividia ect- The Atrix is running Android 2.2-

    Oops! I left one thing out-

    The Sales rep told me the phone was “LTE Ready”, when I asked what do you mean, he smiled and said all that’s required is a Sim Card Change Out, He said Both the Inspire and the Atrix were that way. After I got home I called AT&T and spoke to a Supervisor in Technical Services, who confirmed that dialog. I am very surprised, as none of the reviews have said that. There has been great debates over 4G, and articles that say the Atrix is but isn’t 4G, and cannot work on LTE-

blog comments powered by Disqus