Motorola Shows Signs of Life

Implications: Motorola’s new camera phone won’t be enough to resuscitate their ailing handset business, but it does show that some innovation still lives within Motorola.  This is not the second coming of the RAZR, but is a good beginning if they can follow with other innovative products.

Analysis: Motorola has been dying (literally) for a follow-on to the RAZR, which almost overnight catapulted them into one of the leaders in the mobile handset market.  Their inability to find another success has led to collapsing revenues, an executive exodus, shareholder unrest and the likelihood they’ll divest (or even just close down) their money-losing handset business.

The Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5 is their new camera phone.  There’s nothing new in camera phones, is there?  Many, if not most, mobile phones come with cameras.  Most of life’s most camera-worthy moments occur with little or no warning.  Professional photographers usually have a high-quality camera within reach, so they can record even the most unexpected events.   For everyone else a camera phone has to suffice.  Granted, the pictures (generally 1.0 or 1.5 megapixel with marginal optics) aren’t of very high quality, but they’re better than no pictures at all.

Now Motorola is taking the position that such compromise is no longer necessary.  A normal mobile handset (the ZN5) can now provide high-quality pictures.  They may not be professional-quality pictures, but 5-megapixel and good optics is as good as most point-and-shoot digital cameras provide today.  In addition, the autofocus, flash and software make this a legitimate camera, not just another camera phone.  Viewed strictly as a digital camera, the MOTOZINE ZN5 has to be considered a competitive entry.  

As a phone, the ZN5 doesn’t appear to be outstanding, although it meets all the standard requirements.  It has all the normal bells and whistles expected in high-end mobile phones today, but nothing that appears particularly distinctive.  Viewed strictly as a mobile phone, the ZN5 is just another good, but not outstanding, entry in the field.

The combination of a good quality point-and-shoot digital camera with a solid mobile handset, however, should win some market for Motorola.  Suddenly photos shot with a camera phone are of high enough quality to be considered legitimate photos and not just spur-of-the-moment snaps.  The average digital camera is no longer needed – the mobile handset is just as good.

This is probably not going to rescue Motorola’s handset business, but it is a solid step forward.  It is likely to gain some market for Motorola and may take some market from other handsets and from digital camera vendors.  It does demonstrate some life is left within Motorola’s handset business unit.  If they can follow this with a few more innovative offerings that business might yet recover, but if they depend solely on the ZN5 it won’t be enough.