Motorola Betting On 'Social Networking' Software To Sell Android Phones
As Motorola's (MOT) cellphone lineup gets increasingly stale, and as its market share plummets, new co-CEO Sanjay Jha will have to figure out a product lineup that will get both consumers and carriers interested in Motorola gadgets again. How will he do it?
We already know that Motorola will be focusing on Google's (GOOG) Android operating system as the basis for its consumer phones, including mid- and high-end gadgets. Beyond that, we don't know too much. But Jha shared some ideas on today's earnings call:
It's not the first time we've seen the company emphasize social networking: Last October, the company was advertising a job opening for someone to work on their "Android Social Networking SmartPhone," for example.
But what does this mean?
It's possible Motorola is just trying to make Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, and Loopt easier to use on the phone. Like a camera app that uploads your photos to Facebook, Flickr, etc. Or Twitter built-in to the messaging system. That makes sense, but wouldn't necessarily sell phones by itself.
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