Motorola launching 20-30 Android phones in 2010
By Nilay Patel 
posted January 20th 2010 1:11PM
posted January 20th 2010 1:11PM
[Thanks, Hiro]
posted January 20th 2010 1:11PM
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instead of launching 20 to 30 mediocre phones (depending on one's point of view) i don't know why moto doesn't instead concentrate on making 3 or 4 really good ones
@EI8HT i get your pointm maybe they are trying to launch a variety of phones at various price points, lets see!
@EI8HT
The make lot more money from making cheaper feature phone versions of Android phones than high end smart phone.
@EI8HT
it will boost the android market
@EI8HT Yeah, I don't get this at all. It seems like a new Android phone comes out every six months. Contracts are usually two years. How are you supposed to build a strong brand around multiple hardware versions? I would be pissed had I bought a G1 or Droid.
I guess it's all about the OS and it's versatility, but everyone wants the latest and greatest now. The three to six month cycle is too fast.
A lot of these phones are probably going to be launched in Asia. Motorola's going to make a ton of money. If you want a high quality Android phone go with Nexus One.
@xCrunk The nature of the phone biz is to keep selling them. Competition is steep and contracts expire every month. If they don't have a new one out, LG, Sony, HTC, Palm, Samsung all have new pocket candy and will steal their lunch money.
I never owned a Motorola phone before this Cliq, but it's solid. I would buy Moto again no question.
They are working with an older model (i.e. pre iphone) but this could work for them as smart phones become an expectation rather than a luxury option. Effectively this will put them in the spot to land the next razer and variants.
"Motorola, I'm really happy for you and I'm gonna let you finish but RIM tried this and hasn't recovered."
I think this is a stupid move by Moto...and with the success of the Droid, it looks like it's all gone to their head and they are going back to their old way.
@Plazmic Flame
Ugh, groaaannn... you realize just how unfunny that was, right?
@EI8HT Um...don't they have 3-4 really good phones!
@EI8HT Because people like choice.
@EI8HT
Because "really good" is an arbitrary statement, every phone is designed for a price point, a price point offered by networks so getting lots of networks around the world to stock your phone means income. And income is the aim of any business.
@EI8HT
Those 3 - 4 phones will quickly multiply as you start selling it to more and more carriers. Different carriers need different 3G modems. Some of them may also end up as "Google phones".
They'll probably not build 20-30 completely different designs.
@EI8HT
This is a disastrous move on their part. If I am gonna have to wade thru feature lists to select a phone that suits me I'm gonna end up with iPhone everytime. Guaranteed.
Not only have they ruined their already shaky brand .. it will cost them 30x overhead to maintain 30 different phones .. wrangling with suppliers ..suppoort eissues etc. all multiplied by thirty. Everything multiplied by 30 .. except sales .. which is divided nbot multiplied.
Motorola doesn't understand branding, marketing , or consumers.
@Plazmic Flame Amen I agree... They should reiterate the droid and evolve will.. When will they learn... Personally of they go out of business i won't lose me sleep... And in the meantime Android will get over fragmented and lose brand capability... Oh well...
@EI8HT We hope that Motorola will make good android and reincarnate their brand finally. I think that they don’t invest money into development. After iphone all companies just wakeup. .. so they are doing this to ressurect the dying moto company? More details about one of the shadowy phone: http://bit.ly/motorola-mirage-shadow-on-the-loose
@EI8HT Because this is motorola...the same company that invented the RAZR then proceeded to spin off about 90 billion variants of it for the next half decade.
@EI8HT
aside from the lingering question I have in my head wondering how you know that all 20-30 phones will be mediocre - it is simply business, my friend.
@xCrunk I bought a G1 and thought all my friends with the iPhone can go fly a kite cus I have a leg up on them(well one to stand up next to them anyway) but now everybody and their cousin's best friend's sister has an Android powered phone. Looks like iPhone is unique once again!
That's a lot of dough there. Wow.
@hq wow that's a refresh a new era for moto to be more profitable
@hq
In case people have forgotten, NO, we didn't get 18-20 Android phones in 2009 as you said, Andry Rubin. Not even close to that figure.
@TareG
1 htc hero
2 sprint htc hero
3 htc magic
4 htc tattoo
5 htc eris
6 samsung moment
7 samsung i7500
8 samsung i5700
9 tmobile pulse
10 acer a1
11 motorola dext
12 motorola cliq
13 motorola milestone
14 motorola droid
15 not
16 so
17 far
18 off
WTF?
So much for that "hardware carriers feeling shunned by Google's Nexus One" theme, eh?
@Conquistador Yeah. Android seems to be giving phone makers a reason to compete. A common base that everyone will be familiar with, but with enough variation to satisfy the fact that one size doesn't fit all. Phones are sold in vast variations, and there's no way everyone's going to buy an iPhone, simply because of numbers. One model, one manufacturer, one new phone per year, one marketing angle, typically one carrier. With Android on the other hand, tons of companies get in on the action and compete through advertising and presence in umpteen different ways. Many new models every month. It's a numbers game. This is starting to look like Windows vs Apple all over again, probably with the same result. Apple will continue to make money and have cool products, but Android will sweep the lion's share of the market.
@ArtInvent Very well put! Android is giving the handset manufacturers an established and ever growing app base for all new phones they launch on the platform. Sure the Iphone app market is significantly larger at this point, but that gap will quickly vanish as the gap in market share is sure to.
It's the same as PCs in the 80s/90s where you had multiple hardware vendors all trying to innovate a single platform vs Apple trying to do it all alone and stay just as competative.
Originally i had no interest in Motorola, but now..
The droid certainly changed my opinion of them..
This shows that Motorola are really coming back into the game. I'm glad really because they were so good up until a while after the Razr's release and it all went downhill. Now you rarely see more than two or three Moto devices in phone shops around the UK.
I'm sure there will be some devices that will be cheaper than others to contend with other phones available at that price point. The Curve 8250 is sat at £15 per month and selling like hotcakes over here, so if Moto can output an Android device at that price point I'll be all over it!
More choices = better for the consumer. It's always nice to see another party bring a wide variety of devices to the market, and in Android's case, it has the flexibility to be diverse.
This means they'll have 3 or 4 models, just slightly renamed, tweaked and sold as 'exclusives'
WinMo7 had better hurry up!
I'm upset that Motorola is putting all of their eggs in the Android basket.
I currently use a Q9C and would love to see a proper Q successor with WinMo7, or at the very least WinMo 6.5.
Motorala Clip has nice camera, it actually does focus quite well unlike iphone can't focus crap.
But they definite need to work at design.
20-30??? certainly that includes every possible variation for various carriers...
aside from the Milestone/Droid and MotoRoi... they will all be junk... look at the Cliq and Backflip... utter garbage... but what else would you expect from Moto... ;-)
Launching more mediocre android phones rather than launching more high end phones will boost the android market
Droid army is gonna PWN!
Good stuff Motorola.
How easy are landscape qwertys to use?
I've only ever used candybar qwerty phones (currently nokia E72)
@Oli D
The benefit is you have a much larger screen, with access to the virtual keyboard for typing quick quips. If you want to write a long email you go for the physical keyboard.
It's the best of both worlds.
The downside is the phones tend to be slightly thicker to acommodate, but so far I've carried a TP2 or G1 in my pocket and the thickness isn't a big deal..
why not release 500 or 6000? now it becomes obvious why apple is so successfull with its iphone, because there is one and only one
with a large ecosystem. motorola is just as stupid as samsung, nokia, lg or sony ericsson.
@sottil
Because all the named companies aren't successful at all...
@ClarkyAC
just what i meant: the more phones they release the less successfull they will be, as proven by apple and palm with its pre.
motorola should concentrate on the droid instead.
@sottil That's makes sense, to a certain extent. Motorola wants to sell across the board to appeal to all. If they sell or focus on 1 phone, they might not meet what goal they're looking for. For example: many people don't like the way the Milestone looks, and actually went to get the CLIQ (then root that to put 2.0 on it (some are happy with 1.6!)) It's all about choice.
People want/like all types of form-factors and want to able to choose. A stellar success from 1 phone is nice, but believe it or not, there are people who really, just don't care and want something like a slider or flip, a rounded phone, or even a phone with a hump! Their choice is what Motorola cares about, and is the reason they're going for this.
Motorola's coming!
when nokia does so many models is heavily criticised but when motorola does not even a tiny sarcasm bit?
come on... just steal some "funny" quotes from nokia posts.
MOTOROLA, I know you're reading this.
You need to make a Razr 3 with Android. Thin flip phone, dual screens, it would be a huge hit. Everyone has fond memories of their RAZR, it just didn't keep up with the market and consumer mindset. Put Android on it, make it sexy, make a RAZR 3!
@JONNNathannn Oh man, that would be bad ass! Something reminiscent of the N93i or PearlFlip but with better edges, faster processor, and if possible, a QWERTY or QWERTY-variant keyboard. A man can dream, =).
@JONNNathannn
My only memories of my RAZR were that it was small, but it kinda sucked. I'm pretty sure that's most people's memories of RAZRs, which was a big part of what killed Motorola's dumb-phone division.
Will any of these be straight Google Experience phones at 2.1? Or will they all be MotoBlur phones running Cupcake?