Motorola cuts off gangrenous right arm

Motorola is to split into two companies - one selling infrastructure and networking equipment, the other left to try and sell handsets against increasing competition. The split comes as no great surprise. Motorola has been seeking a buyer for its handset unit for months, and the company's news has long been split between …

[Ralph B]

Making your mind up

> the firm's insistence on supporting every software platform

"Insistence" implies there was a strategy. "Indecision" would be a better word, surely?

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad.

Goodbye, Moto...

[bluesxman]

maybe...

...they'll finally put out a phone with a usable UI.

Maybe not.

[studentrights]

Blood on the iPhone's touchpad...

Let the flame war begin...

[Andy Barber]

Lost the plot

When they were dropped by Apple, for the CPU the Mac, surely that should have told them that they had lost the plot.

[Jim]

What?!

Surely all they need to do is paint an old, rubbish phone pink and it'll sell like hotcakes, making them a profitable company... oh.

Erm... gold then?... oh.

This looks like the beginning of the end.

[brian]

Goodbye Moto.....

hopefully those stupid "Hello moto" ads will disappear as well.

[Laxman]

Their mobile lineup is bad...

It's not just that they support so many platforms - but the only compelling Motorola phones I have seen in years has been the RAZR V8/V8i, which was good for while it lasted. Plus, the lineup is very patchy and they aren't present at some crucial price points - which I think matters in developing economies like India.

They need to emulate Nokia - a lot of phones, at every price point in the market.

[Rob McDougall]

Gash

Their phone UI has been awful for years. The handsets always look nice, and have some good ideas - but the overall look and feel makes me never ever want another Moto handset ever again.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Andy Barber

"When they were dropped by Apple, for the CPU the Mac, surely that should have told them that they had lost the plot."

It was the other way round. Moto fired Apple after a Steve Jobs screaming fit at Chris Galvin.

And Moto screwed Apple royally. They had to overclock the G4 (remember the Wind Tunnel?) until the G5 came along (for desktops) and until they moved to Intel (for notebooks).

[The Badger]

@Lost the plot

"When they were dropped by Apple, for the CPU the Mac"

Hello? Not every item of news related to technology is about Apple. Besides, Motorola spun out their semiconductor business a while back; this has barely anything to do with that.

[kain preacher]

G5

I believe the G5 was made by IBM

[Lance]

@Anonymous Coward

Motorola just didn't screw Apple, but themselves and their investors as well. Lose a customer and lose revenue.

[Rich]

The RAZR's a good device

I use a year-old pre-3G RAZR. It's an ok phone and of better build quality than most. The lack of software functionality lets it down, but I personally wouldn't consider anything that's either bigger or doesn't have a flip.

The two big non-software bugs are the way it has outside mounted buttons that stay live when its closed (why!) and it's refusal to recharge off a vanilla USB cable.

I wonder what will happen to the old Symbol business in this deal?

[Anonymous Coward]

No great loss

I've never seen a Motorola phone that was worth squat. Crap UI makes it next to useless. They'd be better off selling the unit to the Chinese.

[John]

Nortel - Motorola merger

It's apparently on the cards for wireless network infrastructure, so maybe now it might happen for the rest of the business. Depends what the canadian government says though.