Motorola shifting smartphone focus, cutting 4,000 jobs
Although Google’s acquisition of Motorola has been in the books for quite a while, we have yet to see much actually come out of it, much less what I hoped we would see when the purchase happened. So far, other than a slight leadership shift, very little has changed. However, it seems that some more drastic changes might be imminent.
According to The New York Times, Motorola will soon be reducing its workforce by about 20%, which means the firing of about 4,000 global employees. This is apparently part of a broader plan for Motorola, where they will close quite a few offices, and focus on “a few cellphones instead of dozens.” These few cellphones won’t be the cheap feature phones that have come out of Motorola in the past, and will instead be high-end smartphones, presumably running Android.
One of the features that Motorola will be focusing on is long battery life, as their RAZR MAXX has been a moderate yet quite success. Motorola will also work on improving their cameras and work closer with Google on their software to provide among other things better voice commands. The company won’t, though, get an exclusive shot at making the next Nexus device, and will have to compete evenly with other manufacturers for the privileged.
While it’s never great to hear about a company firing workers even when it needs to be done, I think that Motorola’s new streamlined approach may work quite well. The company has been losing money for quite a while now, but by cutting extra weight and focusing on making great device may be able to turn things around. I don’t even think they need a Nexus device, just a good high-end Android smartphone with great battery life and the latest Android version may be enough. Anyhow, I’ll be watching Motorola the rest of this year and the next to see what the redesigned company comes up with.
[The New York Times via The Verge]
