Too Little to Late

Implications: This is something that they should have launched 12 months ago.  Failing that then we should have seen it in February at GSM World. The design is dated and the technology is out of date. This new handset is not going to have Networks placing orders outside of the US.  At best this gets a C for effort.

Analysis: This is something that is evolutionary rather than an advance that means that once again Motorola can be seen as one of the big 4.  Not only will it not be a success in terms of sales it will not be something that shows that Motorola has the design skills to match the leaders in the field.

Motorola's failing in the Emerging market are not ALL of its own making; the fact that the logo can be seen on the radios of American Soldiers fights the war on terror means that they can write off sales in an Islamic nation.

What is more damaging is that in the developed market they just do not have the focus need to compete on price or functionality.  Last week Sony Ericsson launched a handset that will have 8-Megapixels and GPS.  So this new handset will go against the Sony Ericsson K850i and Nokia N82 both of which have been available for over six months.

This handset rather than showing that after another fall from grace Motorola have got its Mojo back and can rise again shows just how out of touch they are.  The smart move would have seen a handset with excellent graphics, will be running the new Symbian UIQ 4.0 OS and have GPS. 

The latest handsets running Qualcomm silicon have excellent graphics and the latest Nokia handsets have GPS.  Both of these show that the consummer expects something far richer than can be designed in house by Motorola.

They have the opportunity to show that they are back in the game with one last role of the dice in the Fall when they show what they have for the important Chrustmas market.  Get it wrong and the Executive team will not be selling the business off to a Private Equity House (No other handset guy will buy it).  Rather it will be laying everyone off and heading for the Business School case studies on how Innovation out performs Engineering.