At a time when many Mobile players are increasing their presence in newer segments,Motorola has decided to clamp down on its non-core activities. The first casualty seems to be Motomusic Music store in India which would be closed down by July 15, 2009.
Motomusic store in India offers more than 3,50,000 tracks and other multimedia content like wallpapers and videos for download. After the said date the store will not allow any purchases or redemption.
Motorola at the same time is also mulling the sale of Singapore-based Online music service provider Soundbuzz acquired last year to boost its MotoMusic service and supplement its Music phone sales. The sale of Soundbuzz,also shutting on 15 july is due to the pressure on revenues which the Mobile giant is facing.
Motorola in a statement clarified its recent move,“We are streamlining our portfolio and will be introducing Android-based Smartphones that will allow us to give consumers and customers access to a broad ecosystem of experiences. This means Motomusic and Soundbuzz are no longer core to our market strategy”.
This action depicts two things, One the increasing focus of Motorola on Smartphone segment and the clamp down on Music phone segment owing to competition faced from Sony Ericson and Nokia in recent times.
The surprise move to shut down Motomusic Stores in India seems no-brainer as music store should be seen as catalyst for mobile sales rather than earning huge revenues from it in the short-term.
Nokia and Sony Ericson at the same time are gearing up to launch their own stores to provide value-added services like music and gaming deriving next growth driver for Indian market.
It’s more to do with Motorola’s defocus on the Indian market than Android based smart phones or anything else. Motorola have been facing decline in sales and are withdrawing from one market after another. Currently they are primarily focussing on Chinese & American market till they return to profit. Only after that will they start considering any India specific strategy.