Motorola, the Recession, Android, what about MIDP3, and the potential for good things to come
From Recession Delays Motorola Cellphone Spinoff, More Cuts Coming (MOT) (Sillicon Alley Insider):
8:24 Have had too much complexity. Today over 20 combinations of software, silicon, and UI platforms. This has resulted in high costs and portfolio gaps in 3G, smartphones, very low tier.
:
No longer planning to develop certain OSes. Will focus on Android, Windows Mobile, and P2K. ODM solutions for low and very low tier. Will no longer offer new OSes on internally developed Linux Java or Symbian UIQ. $370 million of charges on inventory write down.
The above is actually a very good thing. Focus, focus, focus. Less OSes translate to less maintenance overhead. And leveraging Open OSes mean leveraging others (i.e. cheaper) to build a high-quality product.
I think Android has fallen from the Sky and just at the right time for Motorola.
Motorola can focus on creating strong H/W pieces based on Android, while riding the Android wave and making things cheaper.
If I was Motorola, I would design a common platform, a foundation for all of their handsets, and drop all OSes except for one, Android, as it is (or should be) cheaper, it is based on Linux (and Motorola likes Linux), has a great UI (Motorola is not great at UIs), and leverages the Google infrastructure (GMail, Contacts, Maps, etc) allowing for highly functional handsets right out of the box. I would also use a powerful design company such as Frog Design for their industrial H/W design, and then concentrate on the manufacturing aspects.
I’ve the feeling positive things will be happening for Motorola, if they continue working on the right things: re-organizing and cutting costs/expenses, working on the right technologies, taking advantage of their strengths (manufacturing) and culture, and focus, focus, focus.
Last but not least, all of this begs the question: what is the future of MIDP3? Motorola is the MIDP3 spec lead, and the spec is pretty much ready to go, complete. But it seems for obvious reasons that MIDP3 is not on Motorola’s top/high priority list. Will Motorola drop MIDP3 or will Motorola have a MIDP3-runtime on top of Android? That would be interesting. Let’s wait and see.
ceo
November 2nd, 2008 at 8:15 am
[...] Motorola, the Recession, Android, what about MIDP3, and the potential for good things to come [...]
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
On the future of MIDP3, it is a requirement in MSA 2.0:
(Section 6.2, MSA 2.0 EDR): JSR 271 defines the Mobile Information Device Profile version 3.0 (MIDP 3.0). JSR 271 is a mandatory component in all MSA 2.0 Subset and MSA 2.0 full implementations.
Now, JSR-249 was originally going to be the definition of a CDC-based handset platform, while 248 was the CLDC platform.
This leads to questions like, why was JSR-249 “downgraded” to being an evolution of 248? What handsets will be targets for MSA 2.0 in late 2009? As far as ME’s role as a mobile application platform (excluding other embedded uses), is there a will within the other companies in the ME EC to protect their investment in ME by assuming a stewardship role and working together to create an answer to these new platforms, or have they put ME in maintenance mode to pursue their own proprietary answers or hitch up to another bandwagon?
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:46 pm
One thing about the MIDP/CLDC stack that we forget about is that there is a lot of expertise in creating implementations that run on just about every phone platform in existence. So, these new platforms are simply a port away from running a MIDP/CLDC stack. I think that there is a really strong argument for having an execution environment whose existence can be counted on across a wide array of devices. Of course that means that addressing the issues that currently make application portability between devices a challenge should be given a very high priority.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
That’s actually what a company I saw at CTIA last Sept is trying to do with their mobile/embedded platform Voyager (runs symbian, CF, and I think android)- problem is, when do you stop integrating platforms (since I doubt Android or any other will be dominant any time soon)? they’ll always be yet another “next best” one released. After talking with people who know people who know people at Mot, they don’t think a universal pform can happen. They’ve been slow to jump on the android train- They’d be smart to drop symbian first to try and cut into Nokia.