Motorola RAZR2 V9 Now In Ferrari Overalls

I came across an article on Gizmos.es which mentioned that Motorola is now going one step further with its Ferrari Limited edition phones. The latest model from Motorola’s stable to receive the “Scarlet makeover” is the Motorola RAZR2 V9.

There will be no changes in the phone specifications and initially will go sale in Latin America and Asia. Motorola has a Luxury Edition of its RAZR2 with a gold and snakeskin theme which was recently released in India.

Any guesses how much the Prancing Horse edition of the RAZR2 is going to blow a hole? Let me know.

Image Source: Gizmos.es, Techgadgets.in

Cell Phones & Cutting Edge Technology Makes for a Heady Mix ! ! ! !

I did come across an article on unwired view.com talking about Apple applying for a patent for a "Dual Sided Trackpad". Made me do a double take. I had to chk this one out.

I have heard about Dual sided phones like the one from Sprint. But dual sided trackpad??

As you can see from the patent file pics, the transparent trackpad can act as a normal multi-functional touch screen which emulates all the functionality of the iPhone when the phone the device is closed.

When the phone is flipped open the trackpad can act as a keypad showing the standard T9 keypad layout, or the user can draw the number he/she wants to dial, and host of other features.

Well who does not want to make hay when the sun shines? Apple will surely not miss a chance to make this technology available to its other products and there is already a possibility that Apple might incorporate this feature into its Apple Tablet. Well way to go guys.

The pace at which technology is moving is breathtaking. Apple filed a patent for the iPhone on March 03, 2006 while the “Dual sided trackpad” patent was filed on September 06, 2006.

For more detailed information one can check out the full article on unwired view.com.

Source: unwired view.com

Motorola Round-Up

Motorola Shedding Employees To Stem Losses

Richard Thurston of The Register reports that Motorola is poised to axe half the staff at its design facility in Birmingham, as Moto tries to turn around its beleaguered mobile devices division. All the 121 staff at the facility were told Tuesday they are at risk of redundancy. Motorola is proposing to make half of them redundant and said it may close the site.

Therefore, all employees will initially be placed at 'risk of redundancy' whilst alternative opportunities including redeployment, relocation, flexible working/home working or the opportunity of a 'service site' arrangement are investigated as part of the consultation process.

The company said it would consult employees on the proposed redundancies over the next 90 days. The cuts would likely follow soon after.

The Birmingham facility is a Design Centre, so most of the job losses will be among technical staff.

A company spokesperson said cagily that Motorola would not be invoking job losses at the company's other UK sites.

Motorola has this year already laid off 155 people at Cambridgeshire-based TTPCom, a business which it acquired two years ago.

Tinkering Goes On At Motorola……When Will It Stop?

Today on March 19^th Motorola has shuffled three finance executives in its latest shake-up. Marc Rothman former controller, is now the new head of finance for the mobile devices unit taking over from Jim MacLaughlin who has left the company. Jim MacLaughlin was a 29-year veteran at Motorola. Motorola promoted Laurie Meissner and Kyle Spainhour from within the finance department to take over Rothman's previous responsibilities.

Watch this space for more updates….

Source: Chicago Tribune

The Exodus From Motorola Continues Unabated

As Teresa von Fuchs said “The revolving door keeps turning at Motorola” as the flailing handset maker announced two more senior executive changes on March 17.

Larry R. Raymond has replaced Steve Strobel as treasurer and that Stephen Nolan will oversee mobile devices in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), taking over the responsibilities from Mike Fenger.

However, a pattern has emerged regarding the appointments. Paul Liska as I had mentioned in an earlier post is a private-equity executive who was previously with Sears Roebuck as CFO. Raymond is also a private-equity executive who was also associated with Sears Roebuck. The million dollar question begs to be answered: Is it going to stop the rut?

Only time will tell. In the meantime private-equity executives have taken control of high profile positions at Motorola.

A Recap on High Profile Exits At Moto

WSJ believes that the leadership changes are part of an overall plan to swiftly transform the senior executive team at Moto.

The first three months of 2008 have marked major management changes at Moto. In addition to the CFO change and today’s changes, Ed Zander announced his resignation late last year and Greg Brown took over as CEO in January. Zander’s exit announcement was quickly followed by news that Padmasree Warrior, a top tech mind at Moto who is largely credited for the company’s Razr success, had left for Cisco.

An Old Nemesis…….Plotting Motorola’s Downfall?

As I had posted earlier, Carl Icahn who has increased his stake in Motorola to 6% is now campaigning ferverently to place 4 of his nominees on the 12 member board of Motorola.

Icahn was snubbed in his earlier attempt to get on to the board by Zander. Now Motorola supposedly at its weakest, is trying to fend of Icahn who is in turn favoring break up of Motorola.

However, industry’s analysts point out that no matter what Motorola does to fend him off, the conditions favor Icahn. But still, Icahn has to win over some of the major stakeholders like Thrivent Asset Management LLC in Minneapolis, which controls 1 million shares; in order to have his way.

Will this soap opera come to an end on May 5, when the voting takes place?

Time only will tell……..

Motorola Getting Itself Mired In Political Controversy

In one of the earlier posts I had talked about Motorola getting embroiled in a political controversy in Malaysia.

Motorola on 19^th March denied reports it was involved in a kickback scheme in exchange for a large government contract in Malaysia. The company and key government officials are strongly disputing the accusations, which have been brought by political opponents who have seized the opportunistic moment as the elections are on the threshold.

Motorola tried to defend its pullout from Malaysia saying that it was a strategic business response as the company was under heavy pressure to relocate its operations, possibly to China thereby cutting costs.

Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson denied the allegations.

"Our commitment to transparency and strict code of conduct define the way we act and do business," Erickson said. "As a responsible corporate citizen, Motorola abides by the laws and regulations of each country in which we operate. This includes competing fairly and openly to provide the best possible solutions for our customers who seek world class communications systems."

Malaysia since 1972 has been a major site for Motorola’s operations employing around 4,000 people.

Motorola Malaysia communications and public affairs manager Tham Mei Ling has reportedly said that Motorola was "fully committed" to Malaysia.

What twists and turns this controversy is going to take….only time will tell.

A Concept Phone for Motorola

Came across an interesting piece of story that is been circulated around, it’s about a concept phone for Motorola designed by a Frenchman Lysandre Follet. Now whether Motorola had commissioned Follet to design a concept phone, it’s not yet clear, but here’s the dig on the concept phone.

It’s been nicknamed the “Brick” by some publications for obvious reasons, it’s quite broad. It supposedly has a multimedia player, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi. At least there are indications that the designer wants all these features on the phone.

Now here’s where it gets wacky. It has a stereo camera. When decoded into plain simple lingo, it has two cameras side by side. It’s got dual flash to boot! One each for the two cameras. This will come in handy while taking 3-d panoramic shots. Apparently, one camera can be used for recording videos and the other for taking pictures at the same time ! ! ! Wow.

This concept was first posted on Coroflot.

Nokia Morph: Nanaotechnology in full flow

Nokia Research Center and the University of Cambridge unveiled on February 25^th, a joint nanotechnology concept titled “Morph” which will be on view from February 24 to May 12, 2008, at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Morph is being touted as a futuristic shape changing, self cleaning, transparent electronics and self charging (through harvesting) mobile phone. The interface of the phone as shown in the video reminds me of the futuristic computer interface in the movie Minority Report.

The technology behind the Morph concept is Nanotechnology.

The video gives us a graphical demonstration of the Morph’s capabilities. I have refrained from giving an insight into Morph’s capability to preserve the shock and awe element. The video is self explanatory and describes all the features of the concept phone.

The phone can be stretched into any shape as desired by the user and it still retains the touch interface. Wow….However, this technology will not be available any time soon. For the individual concepts or ‘elements of morph’ to be incorporated in to our everyday usable mobile phones, might take around 7 years. Expect the cost of such phones to be astronomical.

How feasible is this technology….only time will tell.

Source: Nokia

Motorola promises a fine showing at CTIA Wireless

In an earlier post I had lamented about Motorola’s poor showing at the World Mobile Congress. Well it seems Motorola is finally pulling up its socks. A sneak preview of Motorola’s upcoming phone line up was posted on YouTube.

Apparently Motorola was planning to make big announcements at CTIA Wireless scheduled from April 1-3 instead. It seems that Motorola was reluctant to unveil its line-up of phones at the Mobile World Congress. They wanted to get away from the din and chaos of the Mobile World Congress and chose a quieter venue to announce their phone line-up.

Well Motorola we are waiting and please do not let us down this time…