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News
Issue #2001 - 31
(August 2001)
(Updated
August 1, 2001)
TECHNOLOGY
Motorola Opens the Door to its Cellphone Technology for all to
See
Faced with internal
struggles and a downturn in the economy, Motorola is rewriting the
rulebook to read: It is in the best interest of a company to sell
its proprietary technology or secrets to its competitors.
The second-largest cellphone manufacturer will begin to sell the
chips and software along with the know-how for next generation of
cellphones to all third-party manufacturers as well as its rivals
Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel, and Sony. "Motorola's new wireless
strategy is radical and rule-changing — with the potential to
redefine success in an industry now being rocked by
disruptions," said Christopher Galvin, chairman and CEO of
Motorola.
Even though Motorola has sold chips for use in cellular base
stations and other products to its competitors, it has never
disclosed its building tools for cellphones.
Some industry experts are saying that Motorola's new strategy
that focuses on selling the mobile phone platform for 2.5G and 3G
devices could be the right move at the right time. With
next-generation networks being deployed in Europe and America, the
demand for next-generation handsets and services will be on the
rise.
Motorola’s new strategic direction also "parallels the PC
industry of the early 1990's with the rise of the motherboard
industry and major brand assemblers — where value is derived from
competing on the basis of brand, distribution and style," said
Fred Shlapak, executive vice president and president of the
Semiconductor Products Sector.
Having now developed a reputation for reliability, cellphones are
being purchased based on style, brand name, and value-added features
rather than on their internal components. This shift in consumer
buying habits is good news for Motorola.
According to Ray Burgess, director of Strategy and Marketing at
Motorola, the company is hoping to capture one-third of the
cellphone embedded market, or $12-billion to $15-billion by 2004.
Motorola’s Wireless Next-Generation Platforms
The chipsets contain all the electronic innards of a cellphone,
along with the reference materials to make it easy for others to
redesign the building blocks or change components. These integrated
chipsets will contain roughly half of the 200 to 300 separate
components in today's phones in less than two-thirds space.
2.5G GSM/GPRS Platform
- Best-in-class system parts count, enabling smaller form
factors and lower overall system costs, thus ideal for
high-volume production for economical devices
- Foundation for single-mode or multi-mode cellular solutions
- Additional features such as Bluetooth wireless technology, GPS
and MP3 functionality can be integrated rapidly to offer
flexible solutions
- Future capabilities for EDGE data applications
- First 2.5G platform expected in the first half of 2002
3G Multimedia Platform
- UMTS and WCDMA are supported
- Ability to deliver a wide range of voice services, mobile
data, and advanced multimedia solutions, including m-commerce,
audio and video streaming, e-mail on wireless devices such as
smartphones and handheld computers
- First alpha customer commercial products based on the 3G
platform for manufacturers are expected in 2003
By opening the door to its proprietary technology, which
promises to make it easier to bring next-generation devices to
market, Motorola has set the stage for a greater focus on the
evolution of integrated wireless services. These advanced services
will be key to attracting worldwide adoption of wireless
technologies, among consumers and businesses alike.
For more information: http://www.motorola.com
Mobileinfo Comments and Advisory: Motorola
has among the finest research labs and some of the best scientists in
our industry. This group must find it frustrating when their research
and development efforts benefit Motorola alone and are not available to
the industry at large. In difficult times, Motorola must rely on its
core strengths for its financial turnaround. This is a good long
term fix, considering the strategy Lou Gerstner of IBM utilized in late
80s - utilize its manufacturing and intellectual property. This will
encourage Motorola's internal organization to compete with outside firms
so that it manufacture and market handsets and wireless infrastructure
at lower cost and price. This is good for the industry and we applaud
Motorola for that.
Note: This news release may contain
forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in
developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology
architectures. All trademarks used in this summary are
the property of their respective owners.
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