Motorola Steps It Up

By Shannon in News on Nov 12, 2006 9:10PM

First there was the Crackberry. Then there was Motorola's Q. Q ads cropped up all over Chicago with their pretty/ugly models pushing the hell out of it, trying to pass it off as big as the second coming of Christ. In reality, Q sales have been described by analysts as merely "OK," which in the business world translates to "Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."

On Friday, Motorola took a step to try to beef up its smart phone market share by buying Good Technology, a software maker for mobile handhelds and a rival to the omnipresent Blackberry. Good, based out of Santa Clara, CA, has been in the game since 2002, cranking out email programs for wireless phones. The pickup might just be what Schaumburg-based Motorola needs to stay fresh in the corporate sector. Though they sell quite well to consumers and the Q has been praised in reviews, they've kind of dropped the ball when it comes to business needs. With this buyout, another one from September, and a Q revamping due in early '07, the Crackberry just might have a feasible foe.

As far as the consumer market goes, Motorola's Razrs, the hugely expensive phone that somehow 95% of the population has come to own, continue to sell well. The Razr's latest incarnation for the (Product)Red campaign, a stylish little red number (shocker), outsold other Razrs 20 to 1 when first introduced in Chicago. However, since product lines for the AIDS-fighting initiative are so small, analysts have expressed some concern about how they will affect the bottom line of the companies involved. Since it seems like all companies involved are pretty well-off as it is, we aren't too worried. Plus we have a feeling red's gonna sell real well right around Christmas-time ... which, according to marketing execs, happened last week.

Image via winbile.net.