Motorola, which was formerly owned by Google and sold for pretty less to Lenovo, has come out with its take on the whole experience. Motorola had a heart-to-heart with the press at the MWC and has come out with some great snippets on what it was like to be owned by Google and how it is now to be owned by Lenovo. Here’s what Motorola said about its previous boss and its current boss.
“Google wanted us to be successful, but never needed us to. I wish we had a special relationship with the Android team but before meetings I waited in the lobby like everyone else. We got treated like any other OEM. Google was very careful to not give us any special treatment.” stated Steve Horowitz, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Motorola.
It seems from Horowitz’s comments, that Google did indeed not give Motorola any special treatment, just like it promised its Android partners when it took over Motorola back in 2011.
In fact, Mark Randal, SVP, Supply Chain and Operations, Motorola, has stated that whatever it achieved in the time frame that it was with Google came from inside Motorola, not from Google. Although, it seems that Google’s being at the helm did help Motorola, it gave it to work on innovative projects like the Moto G, Moto X and the Moto Maker.
What’s surprising though is that, Google did not encourage Motorola to go for stock Android, something maybe everyone silently credited it with when it came to the Operating System on Motorola’s phones. This was actually something that Motorola wanted to do to offer something different from the competition.
“I know where [our] strengths are and I feel that Android’s something to leave with the Android engineers. We’re not about making useless changes. This strategy lets us ship Android upgrades at a much faster rate than anyone else. For example we shipped our KitKat upgrade to the Moto X 19 days after release.”, explained Horowitz, on Motorola’s different approach with Android.
But, there are even more snippets in this conversation. Motorola goes on to talk about its experience with Lenovo. Its strategy of putting stock Android in its phones, is set to continue even after Lenovo takes over the company. Motorola has indicated that Lenovo, being primarily a hardware company, is not expected to interfere with the software part.
Not just that, Mark Randal stated that “Lenovo is good at taking the first unit and ramping production to high volumes and shipping quickly. The other thing is their technologies. They’ll give us better access to better and newer tech.”
Motorola, unlike Nokia for example was a company that was going strong at the time it was taken over. It still is. As far as its bosses go, Motorola is definitely has had a full experience – one that didn’t interfere at all with its functioning while not giving it too much access, and the other which has a history of already coming out with innovative devices and offering something different from the market, but doesn’t have the resources its previous boss had.
How will the Motorola saga pan out? We will have to wait and see.
