By 
Motorola’s co-CEO Sanjay Jha spoke out about the company’s relationship with Google and its Android OS at Fortune Brainstorm Tech over the weekend. Notably, he asserted his belief that Android would become the dominant mobile operating system seen on a vast majority of devices over the next five years. He likened the current battle between Android and the iPhone to the early years of personal computing, when Apple’s early lead was eventually overcome by a standard OS that was not linked to a specific manufacturer or device.
He also stated that while the OS does play a large role in the decision making process when purchasing a new device, form-factor and function play a large role as well, citing that 30 percent of people only consider phones with QWERTY keyboards. A focus on Android was his way of improving Motorola’s mobile products rather than simply focusing on brute-force dominance of market share.
Speaking on the various partnerships that have made Motorola’s Android line a success, Jha pointed out that he has known Google’s Andy Rubin since his days as the head of Danger Inc when Jha collaborated through Qualcomm. Verizon’s need for a big phone, Google’s need for a mainstream Android device, and Motorola’s desire to be relevant in the handset industry created a perfect equation for the launch of the original Droid. While Google works towards a more standardized device set and manufacturer’s like Motorola strive to find ways to differentiate their Android products, Jha says they continue to work very closely.
He also further distanced Motorola from rumors that they might be starting their own mobile OS in the future, seeing little opportunity there unless they could build a big ecosystem around it. He skirted the question of a Motorola Android tablet, though still hinted at the possibility of many different Android form factors.
[via PCMag]
Here is another thing this customers looks for, an unlocked bootloader.
@Steve LOL
@Alex: it is not funny, it is true. I’m waiting for a HTC Android (GSM) phone with keyboard, and once it will be on market i’m switching away from Moto Milestone. They were able to screw up 2.0 (camera bug), slow to release 2.0.1 (browser lag bug), then they released 2.1 (music player bug, alarm clock bug, random reboot bug), they are slowly releasing 2.1 repair update in these days (hopefully fixing the 2.1 bugs) and they are still undecided about 2.2.
Long story short – i was stupid to buy Motorola phone. Hardware is good, but they managed to take a good software, screw it up on many levels, and at same time disable users to help themself (locked bootloader).
@1 @2 @3 If only you guys worked to Motorola the world would be a better place. Until I’ll enjoy my Nexus, its to bad I don’t have many choices when it comes to using stock Android.
This customer might consider moto again if they made phones like the original droid. That means unlocked bootloader and vanilla rom, otherwise I might as well flash a rom onto an HTC phone.
@ F. Augusztin
Those aren’t ‘bugs’ them are ‘features’…
JHA RULES…
@Jdog
The point is that software fixes can be implemented so much better. There are hobbyist prgrammers on XDA that do a better, quicker job than most the manufacturers.
You guys do know that the Droid X has been cracked… and therefore you can have all the cool features out there like wireless tether and flash… You can even overclock… so what’s the big deal about getting a different ROM when you can do anything you want with it the way it is… hey.. I’m just saying!!
@Droidum: once again just for you – do you seriously think phone crashes (complete restarts, including the Motorola and Android logo) can be fixed just by root ? Do you really think Milestone/Droid can be updated to 2.2 just by root ?
I love my Moto Droid. I had to buy out of my contract with my G1, but I’m happy to keep this phone for the full 2yrs. And, the G1 still has a special place in my heart.
Android will certainly rule, but at the rate at which Motorola makes crappy android phones (apart from the Droid line), they are in for some trouble. Just look at HTC, Samsung, Sony, LG, they have a much better line up and custom UI.
android revolution is yet to gather momentum, the world has seen nothing yet, gotta wait for cheap 2.2 handsets to storm the world. 2.2 is 400 percent faster than 2.1 and market is going to be flooded with sub 200 dollar phones quickly late q3 onwards, it is gonna spread like the biblical plague. My gut feeling is android phones will be selling at the rate of 1 million phones a day by year end.
android v/s iOS is not windows v/s mac, it is gonna be far different. For the first time ever a powerful company is pushing open source OS on consumer centric devices with all its engineering powers and muscle. Android is gonna adopt so many forms(due to total freedom to innovate anything on top of Android) that competitors like blackberry, Apple and Microsoft will be confused where to target. Android is the ultimate game changer
@Bob,
You hit the nail on the head. ANDROID is a GAME CHANGER period.