Zander to be replaced by Brown as Motorola CEO

Motorola announced today that Ed Zander will be relinquishing the role of Chief Executive Officer in January 2008, a title he will have held for four years. Greg Brown, current President and Chief Operating Officer, will take over as CEO, while Zander will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors until at least May of next year. Zander, who came to Moto from Sun Microsystems, will perhaps best be remembered for overseeing the company during its RAZR-led handset revival.

[Flashpoint @ Nov 30th 2007 9:22AM]

What Motorola needs to make it shine are:

-A touchscreen PDA.

-all music phones equipted with Bluetooth OBEX, A2DP, and high speed data network capability.

- smaller, lightweight bluetooth headphones

- better buetooth headsets


- partnerships with car manufacturers so they make integrated hands free cellphone devices as good as Ford's SYNC (which actually works better than COMAND in my S550)

- better battery technology.

[holycow @ Nov 30th 2007 9:43AM]

You mean MICROSOFT Sync dont you ?

[bryan.chan @ Nov 30th 2007 11:13AM]

I don't believe Motorola has any of the problems you listed, it sounds more like "nice to have" items to me.

Motorola have touchscreen smart phones. If they don't market them in the U.S. or where you are, then that's a strategy problem. Not a technology problem.

A2DP is pretty standard on high end phones. I agree Motorola's low end phones were not equipped with A2DP, but that's a limitation of the bluetooth chipset they used and processing power of the baseband. All part of the "low" in low end.

Motorola does not make any of their bluetooth accessories. Moto headsets target a very specific group of buyers, those who what something fast and cheap and those who buy them with their new Moto cellphones but too lazy to research other brands.

Lithium Ion cells are the current choice for all handset makers, Motorola has not incentive to increase their cost to use a newer battery technology unless the benefits out-weight the costs. Newer technology is risky and not the answer now, better power management and lower voltage components will give immediate benefits.

In all, Motorola has just as good of a hardware set as any other brand. They use TI basebands, Broadcomm BT chipsets, cameras from Micron, same as everyone else. If ppl must compare Moto handsets with the iPhone, Moto high end phones have superior hardware feature sets. What it lacks is the gimmick multi-touch and the finely honed SOFTWARE that enables the superior feature set. The good thing is Motorola knows this.

[Ryan Trevisol @ Nov 30th 2007 9:43AM]

Maybe now they will stop with the four-letter convention?

Not being a MOTOHATR, I have a Razr V3xx.

[Jason @ Nov 30th 2007 9:50AM]

So no more ZNDR

Let's hope the BRWN won't just be ZNDR in new colours.

[Constable Odo @ Nov 30th 2007 10:12AM]

Motorola has fallen so far behind other handset manufacturers, it is unlikely ever to catch up. Their products are generally crappy. Motorola had such an early chance to get into the Chinese handset market and failed miserably.

They continue to buy up companies and don't seem to ever get anything out of it. They got shafted by the Uzan family in Turkey and will recover less than half of the money they gave away. The company has no real guidance and no foresight. I think they should sell the company and give shareholders back the money they lost.

They basically invented the cellphone and now have almost nothing to show for it. The laughingstock of the handset industry. They just up and let Nokia walk away with market share. Motorola is an embarassment to America.

[Melba Toast @ Nov 30th 2007 10:25AM]

Is it just me or does the guy in the pic look like Dr. Evil?

[Ian Rendall @ Nov 30th 2007 11:06AM]

@ Constable Odo
You are absolutely right. They have spent all their resources on making their handsets look OK, only to fail to progress with the software, features and interface. In the meantime, competitors borrow Moto's designs and make a much better, more useful device.
Moto's standard OS is a terrible, clunky, convoluting beast, and their displays are, at best, basic. Don't even get me started on the quality of their built in cameras...I cannot believe they are still using VGA resolution sensors. I know a camera isn't the be all and end all of a phone, but jeez..VGA went out with the Ark!!

PS Constable Odo, did you manage to get the ears right yet?

[jwbeck17 @ Nov 30th 2007 10:30AM]

Will ZNDR get a ROKR as a going-away present? This was quite the highlight reel for him.

[Joe Mobile @ Nov 30th 2007 11:28AM]

More likely he'll be remembered for coming on after the RAZR was already baked, and then driving an iconic American company into the ground. Thanks Ed.

[Matthew Hilario @ Nov 30th 2007 11:35AM]

NA NA NA NA, NA NA NA NA
GOOOOODBYYYEEE

[JP23 @ Nov 30th 2007 2:20PM]

As an ex-Motorolan I can finally say hey Ed get the F out of here. You and Stu Reed have whittled the company away to nothing and now you bail and go somewhere else to do the same thing.

Caution to everybody: If Ed Zander goes to another company dump your stock in them immediately because they are going in the crapper soon after.

[Luis @ Nov 30th 2007 2:43PM]

From Worst to worse! Brown is a loser with no idea what is happening. He was part of Zanders team during the downturn. The Moto Board should be held accountable 100% they should all be fired.

[Derek @ Nov 30th 2007 3:26PM]

I don't see what bringing in Brown as CEO will do. Brown answered to Zander, did he not? Wouldn't it be a better idea to bring in someone with fresher, newer ideas to run the company?

[Ken @ Nov 30th 2007 4:44PM]

I wasn't surprised ZNDR is leaving, but I was surprised BRWN is coming in! I would have thought someone new would be the obvious choice.
I hope BRWN is a short term CEO until they find someone else [unless he shines, and quickly].

As for ZNDR, he rode in on the already designed RAZR, and just held on for the ride. Now he is getting off, without having added much except mild variations.

Bye, Bye ZNDR!

[PH @ Dec 1st 2007 2:01PM]

The RAZR was developed before Zander joined Motorola. It just so happened that it started shipping shortly after that and he shouldn't get credit for its success.

[roflercopterer @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:07AM]

QUTR