By 
In an effort to achieve “sustainable profitability,” Google will cut 20 percent of Motorola’s workforce in the wake of the company’s acquisition by the internet search giant. The result is a loss of about 4,000 jobs, with Moto’s US operation shouldering one third of the hit. The cuts also come as Motorola plans to reduce its efforts in India and Asia while cutting R&D spending virtually across the board.
CEO Dennis Woodside told The New York Times that Motorola will refocus their efforts on producing a smaller number of high-quality devices, a move that mirrors the approach of other cell manufacturers with recent struggles such as HTC and LG. Google says the cuts were influenced by the trend of monetary losses that has surfaced over the past few years, and warns of “significant revenue variability” for the foreseeable future.
[via TheVerge]
It makes a lot of sense that they would reduce the number of handsets, especially smartphone handsets. The old model of releasing dozens per year worked when handsets were buy and forget. Now that consumers expect SW updates, you need to change business models.
less phones to manage -> better managing => timelier SW upgrades?
Let’s hope so
Wouldn’t count on it unless it’s a Nexus.
I am still counting on it. I said timelier updates, as in: earlier than they currently are. I never said they would get them as soon as a nexus phone ;)
one word, Nexus. if Motorola would make the next Nexus device the developers would swarm to it. look what it did for Samsung Galaxy with the Nexus S. HTC was doing way better as well back when they had a nexus. I’m not a big fan of Motorola design but I would love to see what Google and them would come up with for the next Nexus.
In my opinion, moto wont get the next nexus only because Google doesn’t want to alienate their other hardware partners by showing any favoritism toward moto.
I understand that but on the other side it wouldn’t make sense to let moto fail she. they could slam dunk it with a moto nexus to get things back on track. but who knows, they know how to make money obviously so we will just sit back and enjoy the ride
Five Nexus devices to 5 OEMs.
Motorola basically equals Verizon in the USA. They have a couple phones on Sprint and AT&T. That’s why they won’t make Nexus phones. They don’t have strong relationships with GSM phone providers.
Samsung will almost certainly make the next Nexus phone, because what the Nexus lacks in the US at least is LTE and they have the most experience making LTE smartphones for the North American market. They can source the parts the quickest and Google wants to stay on the cutting edge.
part of doing business, now let’s see how well they integrate. looking forward to a smartphone/tablet combo from them when the useful age of my DROID X2/XOOM combo ends.
Cutting more jobs, just what the US needs. These companies are taking our money then sticking it to our friends and family.
Apple is hiring.
Lol
Only in legal dept…
Yeah, they are always in the market for judges. O_o
majority of those 4000 cuts are temps & contractual staff – they simply won’t be renewing any contracts from those 4000, so in fairness as Motorola haven’t been doing anything amazing; these cuts were likely to happen regardless of the Google takeover.
Stop demanding frequent updates and cheaper phones. When the consumer insists on more for less, something has to give.
Perhaps they should keep those 4,000 people and let the whole company go bankrupt?
Is it callous to ask if the blur team is on the chopping block?
Motorola Nexus can save them.
Google is also offering many of these employees severance packages and job placement counseling which is more than other companies…..still this is the nature of business and Motorola was not doing well. Hopefully they will start to move forward with better designs and need to add new employees.
I think someone is making a blunder. Everyone looked at their analysis and is abandoning the low end market at the same time. Ironically, as the Android phone becomes more mature and each revision is not as great, low end phones will become more and more practical.
Buy stock in Huawei?