Farewell to a friend

I was trying to enjoy my morning orange juice and banana yesterday morning, when along came a breaking CNBC news alert informing me that Google had just purchased Motorola Mobility.  Quickly, I got to my Twitter account and found the Google blog post giving the backdrop to the story, and as a result of being so quick on the draw, I recognized that I had beat the following out the door to tweet the story:  BBC, Paid Content, mocoNews, Reuters (sorry, guys!), the Huff Post, and others.  I felt rather proud to get this to my 467 followers early! (@iammobilebob, if you’re not following me yourself!)

Bob Schukai 16 Aug 2011Bob Schukai

The story though in many ways makes me feel quite sad.  Motorola was a wonderful company to work for, and I think about some of the tremendous phones (and the not so good ones) that they made.  I have an original brick phone.  I have a StarTAC.  I have the V50 (we called it Kramer) – one of the smallest mobile phones ever made and a product which violated every design and manufacturing rule on the planet at the time.  I have a Dolce & Gabbana gold RAZR.  I have several of the first 3G phones ever made.  Maybe one of my favorites is a touchscreen smartphone built around 2001 where you could use your finger to do Chinese handwriting entry/recognition called the Accompli 008.  You could also download apps on it and access your corporate email.  A shame that like many of Motorola’s products, they were WAY too early for the market.

That is one of the tremendous things though about Motorola.  They have really pioneered so many things in mobile telephony that we take for granted today.  I can remember standing on the Great Wall of China in the late 90s talking on the first tri-band GSM phone that Motorola made to friends back in the United States (tri-band meaning that it had both the European frequencies for GSM as well as the fledgling 1900 MHz GSM band at the time in the United States).  We also take for granted today that our phones are used for mobile internet browsing, email, location services, and downloadable apps and games.  One of the most amazing devices that Motorola made was a touchscreen 3G phone for Hutchison Whampoa (known now as the operator 3) that was part of a $700 million dollar handset deal back in 2001.  At the time, only Japan had 3G services running, and this deal put Motorola back into a leadership position from a 3G perspective.  Think about this in perspective:  in 2003, Motorola had a phone that could roam anywhere in the world, supported downloadable apps, let you access email, had a built in GPS receiver, could do two-way video calls, streamed and played back video, and had a memory card slot for expansion.

They say that timing is everything.  I’m very proud to have worked for such a company with great people and terrific technology.  The work at Motorola has created the foundation for my role today as the Global Head of Mobile Technology at Thomson Reuters where I have the privilege to see us deliver and share information to professionals and markets users on all sorts of devices all around the world.  They were true leaders in helping operators discover the value and power of data and location services, and these tools are excellent building blocks for Thomson Reuters to leverage as we continue to provide world leading information services on mobile devices.

CATEGORIES
Technology



  • Xiangfeng Liu

    I have similar feelings.  Motorola has been a great company for its technology innovations and smart people. Not mention to its contributions to  the world, Motorola achieved fantastic performance in China when entering this market in last 80s. Its seize the fast growing market opportunity (the pager then 2G mobile) and made correct strategy like transferring the factory and some R&D to China market so focusing local customer requirement. China used to contribute over 20% of global revenue. Moreover, as one of the most successful foreign company in China, Motorola had developed quite some management people and senior technical people who later went to other telecom companies even industries.  That is what I appreciated Motorola more.
    Â
    However, when I joined in Motorola late 2002 as an R&D staff in Networks business unit, it started the down trend as a whole company(Mobile did much better). Besides the business strategies,  more challenging crisis is the company culture.  It”s getting more bureaucratic, and farther from customer.  The good organization asset like Six Sigma, Mgate, and the talents help Motorola survive more years like RAZR, while it can not bring it back to the great company.  You know, Motorola Networks even did not have its own solutions for 3G but relied on branding Huawei”s product.
    Â
    I am proud of to have been part of Motorola too, for its brilliant history and what I learnt from the company. After I left, many times I thought some hero could rejuvenate Motorola and even make it greater than before.  Unfortunately, I am sad to see this acquisition news. thought it is not bad for stakeholders and as a brand Motorola will be kept.  Good bye, Motorola, I will miss you.

  • http://twitter.com/iammobilebob Bob Schukai

    Thanks very much for your comment!  You can probably confirm this, but I remember when the word “Motorola” literally seemed to mean mobile in China.  It was everywhere.  The facility that was built in Tianjin was amazing, and Motorola was clearly one of the first Western companies to recognize the need to not only establish a manufacturing capability in China but also grow local engineering talent to create products for local tastes.  

    I also know the issues on the infrastructure business.  When I had the position as head of 3G handset strategy and business development, we spent more time teaming with Ericsson as they were winning so many of the 3G infrastructure deals!

    Nevertheless, I look back at great people, some great products, and truly great time there and wish my former colleagues all the best as they continue forward.  

    • Xiangfeng Liu

      Yes,  consumer business normally has higher visibility so Motorola was mostly known as Mobile/Walkie-talkie/Pager suplier.   Just like Nokia/Ericssion were regarded as mobile manufacturer, though the network solutions serving telecom operators are their major business