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I worked in the mobile network part of Motorola. We had smartphones in the lab for testing in 2001. We were all told that they would be on sale by 2003. But

by OldHand2018 5y ago

I worked in the mobile network part of Motorola. We had smartphones in the lab for testing in 2001. We were all told that they would be on sale by 2003. But that never happened. All of my interactions with the cellphone division were somewhat negative. You got the impression that they thought of themselves as the best of the best and nothing you could offer was worth their attention. The damned RAZR success probably doomed them for good. I was using the smartphones every single day and was making suggestions for UI improvements and software features. They ignored all of it. Oh well. Everything I suggested became obvious updates once the general public had used the iPhone for a year or two.

ansible 5y ago
What happened with the network / base station side of the business? Moto was doing very well with that in the 1990's. It seemed like that business kind of evaporated, but I don't know why.
- OldHand2018 5y ago
  It lives on, as a Nokia/Siemens joint venture. Edit: apparently Nokia bought out Siemens years ago
  - ansible 5y ago
    Oh, I hadn't realized it also got sold off. Let's see, what all was sold off: computer division, analog ICs (Onsemi), digitial ICs (Freescale, NXP), base stations (as mentioned), mobile phones (Motorola Mobility, Google, Lenovo). What did I miss? It is funny that the Motorola as we knew it is gone, but many of the pieces remain. And others were able to make money using those pieces. To this day I still fail to understand the corporate strategy behind all that.
    - pfdietz 5y ago
      Large companies are often worth less than the sum of their parts, particularly if there's little synergy between the parts. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/conglomeratediscount.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/conglomeratediscount.as...
      - ansible 5y ago
        The flip side of that argument is look at how vertically integrated companies like Samsung are. Apple used to buy processors and such from other IC vendors, and now they are doing that in-house. I don't know how Motorola could have been fixed though.

ansible 5y ago

What happened with the network / base station side of the business? Moto was doing very well with that in the 1990's. It seemed like that business kind of evaporated, but I don't know why.

OldHand2018 5y ago
It lives on, as a Nokia/Siemens joint venture. Edit: apparently Nokia bought out Siemens years ago
- ansible 5y ago
  Oh, I hadn't realized it also got sold off. Let's see, what all was sold off: computer division, analog ICs (Onsemi), digitial ICs (Freescale, NXP), base stations (as mentioned), mobile phones (Motorola Mobility, Google, Lenovo). What did I miss? It is funny that the Motorola as we knew it is gone, but many of the pieces remain. And others were able to make money using those pieces. To this day I still fail to understand the corporate strategy behind all that.
  - pfdietz 5y ago
    Large companies are often worth less than the sum of their parts, particularly if there's little synergy between the parts. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/conglomeratediscount.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/conglomeratediscount.as...
    - ansible 5y ago
      The flip side of that argument is look at how vertically integrated companies like Samsung are. Apple used to buy processors and such from other IC vendors, and now they are doing that in-house. I don't know how Motorola could have been fixed though.