Mobile World Congress Revisited

motorola, nokia, mobile, GPS No Comments »

MWC

Long time no blog. I know, I’ve been a bad boy. Last month I attended Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the largest gathering of mobile execs (and wanna-bes) outside of next week’s CTIA. I have lots of memories of the week, from the 2-hour registration queue to the stunning Gaudi architecture to $600/night for a second-rate hotel (damn you, Federal Reserve for that exchange rate). But the most poignant moment of the event was standing in the middle of Hall 8 between the Nokia and Motorola booths. Nokia was busting at the seams with people, having just launched 4 new GPS-enabled devices: the N96, N78, 6210 Navigator and 6220 Classic. Not to mention Nokia Maps 2.0. I glanced to my left and the Motorola booth was nearly empty, a sad sight for me as an ex-Motorolan. I wandered over there and asked one of the Moto employees if they had any GPS phones, “you know, like the ones over at the Nokia booth that you can geo-tag photos with.” She made no effort to put any spin on the fact they they had absolutely no devices in that category. So I’m not entirely shocked that the company just spun out the handset division, prepping for a possible sale. But some of the recent dirty laundry is still eye-opening (Motorola insider tells all about the fall of a technology icon). As a friend recently remarked, Motorola and Ed Zander will likely soon be immortalized in an HBS case study…

Moto Q with GPS from AT&T

AT&T, motorola, mobile, GPS No Comments »

Moto Q GlobalBut wait! It doesn’t end there - AT&T is just about to launch the Motorola Q Global (also know as the Q9 or Q9h or Q9c, etc). I remember holding the “Norman” beta version of this device almost a year ago. The HSDPA made the thing so hot you could iron linen with it. The device sports integrated GPS, but rumor has it that AT&T will lock this feature for 3rd party applications and only make it available through TeleNav or another preferred partner (read: revenue share).

The new 3G Moto Q also features a QWERTY keyboard, 2MP camera, HSDPA Internet connection, bluetooth, and microSD card supporting up to 32GB.

[via Navigadget]

Samsung passes Motorola, takes number two market share spot

motorola, samsung, nokia, mobile, GPS No Comments »

Handset Market ShareMotorola’s recent stumble has enabled Samsung to grab second-place in global market share. Samsung sold 37.4 million handsets in the second quarter, compared with Motorola’s self-projected volume of 35 million to 36 million. Samsung’s unit volume is up nearly 50% over the year-ago quarter. Samsung, like Sony Ericsson, has capitalized on Motorola’s weakness in the European market to gain share.

Of course, Samsung and Sony Ericsson both experienced erosion of ASPs as market share climbed. Both should pay close attention to Motorola’s recent experience in chasing market share at the expense of margins.

[via RCR Wireless]

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