It seems like Microsoft’s Windows Mobile is loosing fast to Android and its major client Motorola is getting more and more inclined towards Android. Motorola is posting huge losses for last couple of quarters ( 2008 Q4 operating loss $1675 million ) and Microsoft is delaying Windows Mobile 7 which comes as a worry to Motorola and even an intermediate Mobile 6.5 release is not able to hold Motorola from shifting to Android.
It seems Motorola’s move to shift to Android platform is accelerated by it bad financial results as if Motorola moves to Android it doesn’t have to pay a heavy licensing fees to Microsoft saving substantial costs and since Android is open source and has already grabbed lot of traction helping Motorola riding Android wave to have a better year ahead.
Motorola has seen a huge plunge in shipments of 46% in comparison to global mobile phone shipment decline of 13% only. Motorola has seen lot of bleeding in last couple of quarter’s and it inspired Motorola to shift to Google open source Mobile Platform Android.
In the first Quarterly meeting ( April 30 ) Motorola’s CEO Sanjay Jha didn’t even mention once about its plans for Windows Mobile and talked a lot about releasing many phones based on Android , Motorola was among the major customers of Windows Mobile including Samsung and Nokia and this move of Motorola will definitely impact Windows Mobile future.
Motorola plans to launch many mid to high end smart phones before the end of the year based on Android. As per Sanjay Jha , Motorola CEO “We remain on track to having Android devices in the fourth quarter, for the holiday season” . Jha Says ”We are in detailed discussions with multiple carriers around the world about a few of our Android cell phones,” He added that the carriers that have seen the devices have provided “very positive” feedback.
There are lot of rumors about “Calgary” the first Android based phone from Motorola having some advanced features like slide out qwerty keyboard, touchscreen but Motorola officials declined to comment on the same. There are also some rumors of Motorola working on Android based Cable boxes for Japans KDDI which is a IPTV box with DVD drive.
It seems that Motorola is relying heavily on Android to serve as a life Saviour.
