Google's moves
Most of the people laid off by Google weren't software people, they were the directors, product managers, and middle management that were massively redundant.
it's sad as the massive globalization that Motorola had in place could have been much better utilized by developing a whole phone in once place, and a coherent OS.. but even when a great OS - Android - came along, Motorola spent over a year switching to it, building insanely complicated requirements, and building Blur which nobody wanted or needed, and has been quietly retreating in the last few years.
But, yes, Motorola's problem, and not just in the Mobile phone space, but also the Networks space (as you mentioned, they both invented it and were one of the top tier vendors for a long time), was always software.
Google's housecleaning is about one thing - changing the culture. It's most likely a predecessor to a massive hiring spree of new grads who live and breathe software, blissfully ignorant of the toxic culture where management didn't "get" software.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
