Motorola has been relatively quiet the past few years. The Schaumburg, Illinois based company dominated the mobile phone market in the early 2000s with releases such as the sleek and slender RAZR. The flip phone sold tens of millions of units and provided Motorola with the type of success that made it one of the most significant hardware companies in the world, but Motorola failed to capitalize on the success of the RAZR.
A follow-up to the RAZR, the ROKR, partnered Motorola with Apple. The phone paired mobile services with MP3 capabilities. This innovative idea would prove to be a standard feature, but unfortunately for the ROKR, Apple failed to support it and the product proved to be a disaster for Motorola. Motorola’s CEO publicly trashed Apple as the ROKR burned. Rather than suffer in silence, Motorola announced its vengeful intentions to reclaim market share and directly challenge former partner Apple in 2011.
The most impressive consumer device of 2011 might be the Motorola Xoom Tablet. As the first Android 3.0 device, the Xoom captured the majority of the buzz and envy in the tablet market. The Xoom features the multitasking Honeycomb operating system, which offers the biggest challenge to the iPad. Motorola might have been spurned by Apple in the past, and the best way for it to get over that failed marriage is to get in bed with an even more attractive business partner. Google fits the bill.
If the Xoom was not the most exciting product that got a sneak preview in January 2011 then it was the Motorola Atrix. The Atrix is a cell phone that is also a laptop and desktop. The device switches between Android and Linux as it changes forms.
Motorola might have been burned by past partnerships, but the company appears to have rebounded. Its Xoom and Atrix might change the consumer electronics market going forward.