A First Step in Google's New Android Strategy?
Written by: Anton Wahlman, Contributor
Tickers in this article:
MMI GOOG AAPL
If so, what can we expect for its Motorola smartphone and tablet strategy? I can think of at least five things:
- A focus on what has set Motorola apart in recent months. This means battery life. At 3,300 mAh, the Droid Razr Maxx is the only Android smartphone in the market today that provides remotely acceptable battery life with a standard battery. With Apple's iPhone 5 rumored to have a battery close to 3,000 mAh, Motorola would be wise to go even higher than its current 3,300 mAh. Perhaps we will see a 5,000 mAh smartphone soon! I think something like 3,300 mAh will be "standard" across all mid/high range Motorola smartphones, perhaps with one or two at 5,000.
- A focus on "pure Android." Most people are complaining today about the slow updates to Android, and the fact that most people don't like the "skins" that essentially all OEMs bake into proprietary implementations of Android. For example, HTC has "Sense", Samsung has "TouchWiz" and so forth. These skins are widely hated by the users, and Google (through its Motorola division) could differentiate itself by at least offering "pure Android" on all of its new smartphones and tablets. This move alone could chop off the legs of all the other Android OEMs until they decide to copy.
- Chrome OS. Why wouldn't "the new Motorola" also make Chromebooks? After all, Motorola already makes keyboards designed for its Android devices. With Chrome OS being ported to run on the same kinds of ARM Holdings(ARMH) chips already driving Android, from companies such as Qualcomm(QCOM) , NVIDIA(NVDA) and Texas Instruments(TXN) , it would be all that much easier to do.
- Actually, Motorola has also signed up to be one of the first providers of Intel(INTC) -based Androids, shortly after Lenovo and a few other smaller players. That being the case, just as it makes sense for Motorola to offer Chromebooks based on its current Android silicon providers -- Qualcomm, NVIDIA and Texas Instruments -- it would also make sense to offer the whole line of Android and Chromebooks based on Intel. In other words, Google/Motorola should simply offer every product -- smartphone, tablet and laptop -- on all four major silicon providers here: Intel, Qualcomm, NVIDIA and Texas Instruments.