Motorola abandoning Symbian, taking a breather to ramp up Android?
The rumor out of Spain (and a totally plausible rumor at that) is that Motorola's abandoning Symbian altogether to put most of its eggs in the Android basket. Moto never had a lot of stake in the Symbian game to begin with, and what little it did have was in the UIQ camp -- the camp being killed off in Symbian's transition to an open platform -- and what's more, the company has made no secret of its ambitions to become an Android powerhouse. The scary part of the rumor, though, is that Moto will go through one heck of a launch lull in 2009 so that it can get Android stuff into the marketplace in time for the '09 holiday season. Now, if that means we don't have to worry about any more V3 colors, more power to 'em -- but can Motorola really afford to go the better part of a year without any blockbuster phones at this point?
[Via Engadget Spanish]
Update:Michael Oryl of MobileBurn points out that co-CEO Sanjay Jha has already announced that Motorola doesn't intend to make new Symbian-based handsets -- but the company is still on the Symbian Foundation's board. This may indicate a desire to ditch the platform -- and the Foundation -- altogether.
