The Wall Street Journal reports Motorola Co-CEO Sanjay Jha has decided to adopt Google’s Android mobile operating system as one of the company’s three platforms for building next-generation cellular handsets and smartphones.
Jha, who left Qualcomm to join Motorola in early August, also reportedly intends to further trim the company’s workforce. Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said Jha will announce the company’s next round of job cuts when Motorola reports its quarterly results on Thursday.
Jha informed company employees last month that he intends to reduce the number of handset operating systems that Motorola supports from seven to just three: Android, the company’s homegrown P2K mobile platform for low-cost handsets, and Windows Mobile, whose second-quarter smartphone deployments rose 20.6 percent year-over-year, according to Gartner. So cuts in the company’s development team won’t necessary hamper Motorola’s ability to innovate.
Hitching A Ride
Motorola’s continuing commitment to Windows Mobile was evident earlier this week when the company announced the availability of the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system on its rugged mobile computers and enterprise digital assistants. However, with Apple’s iPhone enjoying raging success and with Android looking poised to follow suit, Motorola clearly needs to find a way to hitch a ride on the wireless industry’s high-growth curve.
Motorola recently told BusinessWeek it is “excited about the innovation possibilities on Android and looking forward to delivering great products in partnership with Google” and other Open Handset Alliance members. The publication also reported that Motorola has given spec sheets for its first Android-based handset to several major wireless carriers worldwide.
The bad news is that Motorola’s first Android-based handset may not be ready for a U.S. launch until the second quarter next year or go on sale in Europe until the following quarter. In the interim, Motorola is betting its investments in…