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Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time

By | January 12, 2011, 6:18am PST

Summary: Amid the hubbub over Verizon’s iPhone and the war with AT&T one of the biggest winners not named Apple may be Motorola Mobility.

Amid the hubbub over Verizon’s iPhone and the war with AT&T one of the biggest winners not named Apple may be Motorola Mobility.

Motorola Mobility entered 2011 with significant questions. CEO Sanjay Jha had to diversify, innovate and now has to battle for shelf space at Verizon. What a difference two weeks makes. The cards have mostly broken Motorola’s way.

The more I think about Motorola Mobility’s prospects the more bullish I become. Note I’m not predicting that Motorola Mobility is going to be a profit juggernaut—it still plays in a rough hardware neighborhood and has some serious earnings risk as Verizon starts pushing iPhones. But from a product and strategic perspective Motorola Mobility is well positioned. At the very least, Motorola Mobility is setting itself up as a nice takeover target.

Here are five reasons I’m upbeat on Motorola Mobility’s prospects:

  1. The Verizon iPhone is 3G. Motorola Mobility—along with Samsung and HTC—will be at the forefront of 4G services at Verizon. Motorola will have the Bionic (right). That’s going to count for something in the marketplace, especially for customers like me who want a future proof (for two years at least) network. Motorola Mobility still has a lot to lose as the iPhone arrives at Verizon, but it’s positioning is better than a rival like Research in Motion. Related: Verizon iPhone, LTE Androids: Dark Clouds Ahead for RIM’s BlackBerry?
  2. Motorola’s Atrix can change the smartphone conversation. Now the concept behind the Atrix—a smartphone that can be plugged into a laptop shell—isn’t unique. Palm tried it a few years ago, but scrapped plans because the processing power just wasn’t there. Now smartphones are getting dual core chips and the conversation changes. That phone isn’t a network in your pocket—it’s a CPU. Jason Hiner has the overview of Atrix. After a bunch of demos at CES, Hiner is convinced that Atrix is a game changer.
  3. Motorola Mobility has diversified with AT&T. Let’s say this AT&T-Verizon war plays out as expected. AT&T will poach Android customers. Verizon will poach AT&T’s iPhone customers. The comical reality of that Verizon and AT&T marketing war over the iPhone is that the two wireless giants just might cancel each other out. Motorola will make up some of its lost sales at Verizon with AT&T.
  4. Motorola can ride the Android rocket. Now that the dust has cleared on the Verizon iPhone rollout it’s fairly clear that Android isn’t going to lose market share. In fact, the Android express will keep rolling as will Apple’s iOS. Both of those gains will come at the expense of Research in Motion. Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu said Android is getting its first big test. He said:

    Our checks with industry sources indicate that Verizon will put heavy promotion behind the iPhone, likely ahead of its other platforms including Android. On its homepage, it is already highlighting the iPhone 4 and iPad as flagship products with not much else in sight (save for a Jabra Bluetooth Headset).

    As we said before, we believe iPhone on Verizon will be the first true test for Android whether its share gains are real or just a temporary phenomenon due to weak competition. While there will be a lot of focus on whether iPhone users move from AT&T to Verizon, we believe the more interesting question is how many Android users on Verizon decide to switch over to iPhone, now given a choice.

    If you think Android will hold its own (as I do) then Motorola Mobility is a clear winner.

  5. The Xoom tablet looks promising. Let’s face it: Apple has the tablet field to itself with the iPad. Android tablets have been disappointing thus far. And the field at the Consumer Electronics Show was hyped way too much. One bright spot was Motorola Mobility’s Xoom tablet. This tablet will be among the first with Google’s Honeycomb Android OS and has a puncher’s chance of making inroads. Simply put, Xoom’s arrival in March can give it an early mover advantage in the Android tablet market. Related: Motorola Xoom (hands-on photos), Video: Google quietly unveils Android 3.0 ‘Honeycomb’

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Topics

Verizon Communications Inc., Mobility, Motorola Inc., Motorola Mobility, Android, Tablets, Wireless And Mobility, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

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Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
DeusXMachina 15th Jan 2011
@ jblazsek
I have news for you:

The iPhone is already being taken seriously in the business world, and I hate to break it to you, it is flash that has the "image as a toy in business."
View in thread
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motorola is dead
banned from zdnet 12th Jan 2011
well at least motorola mobility. i think it is safe to say that they have no chance of breaking even anytime soon.

so what are your arguments larry?

1. hoping that iphone on verizon won't cannibalize android sales? that's more than delusional. they will be cannibalized by the millions from day one.

2. offering another pos android device with the bionic sometime in the future (among all the other undistinguishable android devices from htc, samsung, sony ericsson)? what a strategy!

3. the atrix? you gotta be kidding. why would anyone want to slap your phone into a dockingstation or schlepp an empty laptop shell with you, just to have a web browser on a bigger screen? doa.

4. and then there is the xoom! a tablet probably costing more than the ipad with the ipad2 arriving around the same time. a tablet without the ecosystem or the distribution power of apple? i guess they will sell a few to apple hating geeks, the rest will just scratch their heads with the question: why should i buy a lame copy of the ipad?

so there you have it. 4 reasons why it is definitely not motorola mobilty's time.
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Staff
RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
Larry Dignan 12th Jan 2011
@banned from zdnet Nice counter view and dueling banjos. I think you overestimate the Android cannibalization issue. Remember AT&T will start pushing Android devices as Verizon pushes iPhone. If anything they are just reversing roles.
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Wouldn't that make cannibalization even worse?
John Zern 12th Jan 2011
@Larry Dignan

As AT&T will offer their variations, different then Verizon's?
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And in the meantime - T-Mobile will be pwning them both.
Wolfie2K3 12th Jan 2011
@Larry Dignan
Their MyTouch 4G ads put the iPhone in it's place. Search YouTube for T-Mobile commerical and Glitchy... Funny stuff.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
pk de cville Updated - 12th Jan 2011
@Larry Dignan

AT&T has 15 iPhones to every Android subscription. Do you think they'll get this ratio down to 10:1?

Android; there's no there there....

Suppose V sells 12mm iPhones, how many Androids will be cannibalized?

Suppose AT&T sells 8mm iPhones, how many more Androids will they sell?

Do the math and write a column on your target growth est for Android and iPhone 2011 on both networks.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
north of wva 12th Jan 2011
@banned from zdnet

1. Yes they will sale some iphones, but millions? As a Droid user I'm pretty happy with my phone. 2 years ago I lusted for a iphone, but because I was on verizon I instead bought an HTC and now own the Droid. I've used the iphone and don't find the experience much different (except I can upgrade the memory on my droid).

2. Future or not the lure of 4G makes me want the new phone. A phone like my droid combined with 4G speed, now that's the ticket.

3. When I read it I thought that'd be great. Carry the smaller version around in my pocket get home or on the plane and plug it into the larger screen. Perfect.

4. Have you seen the sales numbers for android tablets? Even the crappy HW versions are doing well. My daughter has a Nook Color with the android OS and she loves it. I own the ViewSonic G Tablet and I'm very happy with it. But when I saw the performance of the Xoom I have to say I was intrigued.

I'd say Motorola is positioned quite well in the mobility market with these offerings. Of course they don't have a Steve Jobs at the helm to fire up the applelites, but that may a good thing in the long run. As a company Motorola does listen to their customers given the evolution of their product lines. Steve won't allow flash or even a USB port. Good luck replacing your battery if it fails.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
desilvav 12th Jan 2011
@north of wva
good. Another satisfied customer then
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
rpsin 13th Jan 2011
@north of wva So, how about a little wager? I bet that Verizon will sell more than 1M iPhones in the first weekend it comes out. Don't forget 1.7M iPhone 4's were sold in the first weekend it came out, and that was on the crappy AT&T network. Millions of Verizon customers (myself included) refused to buy droid crap for years, just waiting for this day. And on Feb 3 I will be ordering my white Verizon iPhone 4 32GB. I'll pay $100 more than the Verizon "$100 rebate on whatever droid you want because we have to sell them" phone I could have gotten, but that's perfectly fine with me!! It takes any specific new droid phone weeks or even months to sell 1M - and iPhone 4 did it in 2 days on AT&T, and will probably do at least 1M on Verizon the first day.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
jbfmarketing 14th Jan 2011
One thing to point out is that you really can't compare The Iphone to one specific android type phone. You really have to put all Android phones together in one bucket and compare that to Iphone. The power of Android is that the possibilities are so diverse and you can have so many different phone styles all carrying essentially the same OS. It's up to the user to have what they want. With the Iphone you have the Iphone. You either love the Iphone or hate the Iphone. With Android, you can love the Evo but hate the G2 or the Droid and vice versa. If you want to fairly compare the Iphone sales with Android sales, you have to compare it with the ALL the Android phones sold. Whether it is a Droid or Droid X or Evo or G2, it is still Android. Just a thought (from a loyal Android fan). I wouldn't switch from Android if they were handing out Iphones for free. The cool thing is my wife has certain things she wants in a phone such as a full qwerty flip out keyboard and I want certain things such as a better processor and upgradability yet we can still use Android and share the same apps and functionalities. If I switched to the Iphone, I would be toast. I would have no options. I just stick with what they give me and would have to just live with it.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
LDMerriam 12th Jan 2011
@banned from zdnet
I would add another to your list of 4--Motorola hopelessly effed up their brand: http://merriamassociates.com/2010/07/breaking-up-the-motorola-brand/
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
BDA123 Updated - 12th Jan 2011
@banned from zdnet

You apparently don't know what you are talking about. You need to take a real look at the facts. The operating systems are very comparable with a very small percentage of people showing much of a preference. Apple has more apps and Android is much more open and flexible. Additonally Apple is the only company behind iOS where Motorola, Acer, Asus, LG, Qualcomm, and Samsung are fully behind Android. It really comes down to the hardware. Take the Xoom for example. It has a 1280x800 (1.024 millions pixels) screen vs the Ipads 1024x768 (.786 million pixels) in 10" screens. So pixel density is 30% greater. Additionally, the 16/9 aspect ratio is far superior to the 4/3 aspect ratio. Most movies are in 16/9 (or larger) vs 4/3 so you will have black bars on the top and bottom just to view the same movie. You will essentially have a viewable image that is essentially 33% larger (black bars take up about 120 pixels of a 480p image or 480 pixels of a 1080p image) with essentially 30% higher definition. That gives it the ability to have about twice as good of video viewing experience. The Xoom comes with microsd expansion, dual cameras, better builtin sensors, usb ports, hdmi ports, full flash support, and a processor/gpu combination that runs circles around the current A4. Even if the Ipad 2 adds a usb port and cameras with a better screen it will still be inferior. They may even finally have a dual core processor that is comparable, but it will still be inferior. The Atrix is the roughly the same vs the Iphone and the next Iphone iteration is much further away. I have 7 Apple products in my house and I would still take the Motorola first and so will most consumers when they really compare the two.

I admit that Apple has had a better phone and tablet to this point. But last week changed everything. The Xoom and Acer Iconia are both superior to the Ipad and the ASUS model is not far behind. Android Gingerbread is as good as iOS and Honeycomb is superior.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
timspublic1@... 12th Jan 2011
@BDA123

Exactly!
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
DeusXMachina 14th Jan 2011
@BDA123
Talk about not knowing what you are talking about!

"The operating systems are very comparable with a very small percentage of people showing much of a preference."

Why have data when you can make things up. If you DID bother with actual data, you would have found that 84% of respondents in a survey of Verizon customers, INCLUDING Android owners, said they would switch to the iPhone if it were available. Now it is.

"Apple has more apps and Android is much more open and flexible."

Oh really? Android open? Please explain to me the exact procedure by which you can download the Android source, modify, recompile, and upgrade your phone. Hint: YOU CAN'T. Please explain how you remove carrier crapware so that it is not reinstalled automatically, without rooting the phone.
Android is open the way North Korea is open.

"Take the Xoom for example. It has a 1280x800 (1.024 millions pixels) screen vs the Ipads 1024x768 (.786 million pixels) in 10" screens."

You are comparing a prototype to what will soon be the previous version of a product. This makes sense to you why?

"Additionally, the 16/9 aspect ratio is far superior to the 4/3 aspect ratio."

And why is that exactly?

"Most movies are in 16/9 (or larger) vs 4/3 so you will have black bars on the top and bottom just to view the same movie."

Actually a significant number of movies are in SCOPE, NOT 16:9. And since there is far more to do on either tablet than watch movies, I fail to see any inherent superiority. In fact, for a number of UI reasons, 4:3 is the superior format at 10".
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
jblazsek@... 14th Jan 2011
@BDA123 The article talks about the RIM which controls the business market and the Iphone WILL never dominate that market. Iphone needs flash and will never be taken serious in the business market. It has the image as a toy in business.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
DeusXMachina 15th Jan 2011
@ jblazsek
I have news for you:

The iPhone is already being taken seriously in the business world, and I hate to break it to you, it is flash that has the "image as a toy in business."
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
Jimster480 12th Jan 2011
@banned from zdnet lol u have to be kidding me. Android is already better than ios in terms of features and the phones have better and more capable hardware. Why would anyone want to step down to an iPhone when they can have the real deal.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
LOV3LikeRockets 12th Jan 2011
@Jimster480 dude you are the one that has to be kidding me! If you truly think Android is better than iOS you are kidding yourself and blatantly trying to show your "geek" hate for Apple products. Android OS is falling behind the likes of both Web OS (The OS is great, the hardware so far has just been limited, very) and iOS. As much fun as it is to send texts to the wrong person, because your phone decided to do that; or even send texts to numbers you've never even heard of but your phone decided to generate and send to, and even get massive viruses on your Android phone...as MUCH fun as that is, I will leave that up to all of you Android users. And what is fun about Android also is that you can't get a clean install on most Android phones, because the hardware is not made by the same company that makes the software. Man that must be "the real deal"!
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
StupidTechZealots-23432415690276115908309621553360 Updated - 12th Jan 2011
@LOV3LikeRockets

You have got to be kidding me? You think the iPhone has a perfect record? No company gets everything right on the first try. The original Droid was basically the start of the Android push. Look how much has been accomplished in such little time? Android is not going anywhere and it will continue to improve. If you haven't seen the Honeycomb demo at CES you should watch it.

Also, look up CyanogenMod. It supports a freaking ton of phones and offers a no crapware experience. It's better than a pure version by far due to all the little enhancements provided by the developers. The power of these phones is that they aren't all the same and very flexible with what you can do with them. I would be bored to tears with an iPhone if I had to switch now.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
timspublic1@... 12th Jan 2011
@Jimster480

I very much agree. The only thing iP4 EVER had over the many Android offerings was a marginally better screen.

The rest of their hardware is outdated, it was LAST January when the Nexus One came out, now with MORE RAM, dual core processors (each running at higher speeds than the A4), larger screens...iPhone4 isn't even in the same league as current Android phones. Apple better have a BIG improvement coming or they will fall farther behind Android than they already have.

Sorry, but the facts are the facts. You should read them before jumping in with illogical fanboy statements like these.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
Kabcock 13th Jan 2011
@Jimster480
I have a Droid and with each subsequent release of Android it has gotten worse. Slow, random battery drains, CPU hangups that will last forever. If that is what you call a better operating system you need to lay off the crack pipe and see what the real world is doing. Android is a work in progress and has many rough edges. Its only real strength is the google app support but even that can't make up for its unreliable operation. I'll be moving to a Verizon iPhone in less then a year.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
fer.paredesb@... 13th Jan 2011
@Kabcock

Funny, that was my experience with the iPhone. I had an iPhone 3G and with each new iOS upgrade it got worse. My last few weeks with it were unbearable as it was slow as molasses, to the point I couldn't answer some calls because the slider to answer them would not respond at all. I stopped using apps because ANY app would take about 30 seconds or more to start up.

Curiously, tho. I have a Galaxy S now, and with each OS update I've installed it's gotten better and better. Now, I've modded it (easy enough, but not stupid-easy) and it looks great. I changed the default lockscreen, fonts, battery icon.

The only advantage iOS has over Android is that it is a much cleaner, streamlined experience for users. "It just works" (sorta) but at the expense that you can't really do ANYTHING with the phone that Apple doesn't want you to. Change icons? No. Change battery icon? no. Have a decent notification system? No. Install an alternate browser? No. (except Opera and that's because they whined to the EU comission). Install an alternate email app? No. Install a different video player? No. Different camera? no. Going from iOS to Android felt like going from Win 3.1 to Windows 7. Or from Mac OS Classic to Mac OS X. Yes it was THAT great a leap. Apple will do fine, but Android is definitely going to be the dominant platform for mobile.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
timspublic1@... 12th Jan 2011
@banned from zdnet

Words falling out of the trolls mouth go unheard by the the masses. Android rules, iPhone is a toy with a tightly held leash. Now V customers can suffer too.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
rpsin 13th Jan 2011
@timspublic1@... If android rules, then why does Verizon have to give $100 rebates on EVERY android phone? Why? Even brand new phones just out have $100 rebates or buy-one-get-one-free. Why? Because they have to motivate you to lock into a 2 year contract with inferior OS. Explain that one if you can?
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
spacespeed 12th Jan 2011
@banned from zdnet

That was really nothing more than a Motorola/Android flaming piece....

Blasted troll... his name indicates what should be done with him.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
raclemons 12th Jan 2011
@banned from zdnet

ZIP IT FANBOI...
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
coolmanlg 13th Jan 2011
@banned from zdnet I believe the Android based phones and tablets will continue their upward sales but your counter analysis is excellent. Am waiting to see how this plays out.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
Stoshie 15th Jan 2011
@banned from zdnet

#3 - you gotta be kidding! The idea isn't to schlepp an empty laptop shell with you. Are you delusional?

Judging from your other comments, you are more of a fanboy than just simply delusional. Though your #1 puts you pretty close to the looney bin...
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Good points. Android may dip a little with iPhone on Verizon, but, with
DonnieBoy 12th Jan 2011
great hardware from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and others, that will only be momentary.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
kpbpsw 12th Jan 2011
@DonnieBoy I bet Motorla will lose 40 - 50% of it's US sales once the iphone is out on Verizon. They have no consumer brand Droid is owned by Verizon and will be impacted but their iPhone push.
All you have to do it look at the Verizon iPhone (no Verizon markings) to know who has the power in the smart phone market.
ATT will not and can not use Android to sell against the iPhone Verizon's loss of market share to ATT over the past year proves that.
The only place for Motorola to go is down market, Android for the next year in the US market is a race to the bottom.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
mark.goodwin@... 12th Jan 2011
The internet is littered with people hating AT&T and loving their iPhone. They will leave AT&T and go to Verizon in droves and swell the ranks of Verizon customers. I do not see the same desire to be on AT&T. There will be existing customers on Verizon that will switch to iPhone. I do not see the same ranks looking for a motorola phone. This will hurt Motorola. They will have to offer deep discounts to keep their phones moving and compete with Apple. In the near term, Motorola will lose the numbers game but I do feel that the Droid offering will emerge with sizable market share in the end (tablets included).
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Reasons why Android is Going to have a Much tougher time in U.S
Davewrite Updated - 12th Jan 2011
First Apple moving onto multiple carriers in one country has always resulted in apple dominating and increasing sales and marketshare:

Tim Cook at Q2 2010 Earnings Call:
" Over the past year, weve moved a number of markets from exclusive to non-exclusive, and in each case that weve done that, weve seen our unit growth accelerate and our market share improved, but that doesnt mean that we view that that the formula works in every single case. And so I would just reiterate what I did last time is that thats how were learning so far. Thats the results that weve seen so far. But we think very carefully about each of these at the country level to conclude whats in our best interest."

Read that carefully: generally at every country when iPhone moves onto multiple carriers iPhone sales and market share increases : that's what they found. He cautions that might not happen in every future case as he cannot guarantee the future but for all the tens of countries they did it that's what happened.

Are there carriers out there were when iPhone and droids are on the same carrier, the hordes of Droids have killed the iPhone?

Then there's the calculation: in Q3 2010 Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones in the U.S, AT&T activated 8 million or so 'integrated devices' which gives iPhone 65% of AT&T smartphone activations in spite of the fact AT&T has numerous other smart phones: Droids, Blackberries, WinMo, Palm and Nokia.

Analyst firm Piper Jaffery puts it higher: In Q3 80% of the smartphone sales of AT&T were iPhones. (discrepancy of the numbers might be due to what is considered among the integrated devices is a smart phone)
Even with Droids, Blackberriers etc iPhones take huge chunk of smartphone sales. These 80% are going to switch to Droids once iPhone goes to Verizon? Don't think so (more reasons see below). But there IS indication of pent up iPhone demand on Verizon, as shown by:

the SURVEYS like ChangeWave 2010 poll:

ComputerWorld:
"a recently-released poll said there is "an unprecedented level of pent-up demand for the iPhone among Verizon subscribers," Rockville, Md.-based market research firm ChangeWave said its survey of more than 4,000 consumers pegged Verizon as the U.S. carrier most likely to reap massive rewards if Apple opens up the iPhone to other providers.

Of those polled who are currently Verizon subscribers, 19% said they were "very likely" to buy an iPhone if it became available to the carrier, with another 34% answering that they were "somewhat likely" to buy...
"If Verizon were ever to offer the iPhone, the evidence points to it having a profound and likely transformative impact on the industry," ChangeWave's report of last week said."

Polls Do Not show massive numbers of consumers eager to jump carriers for the latest droid's on a rival network. Results of last year show that AT&T has a much larger Net Gain of Smartphone users than Verizon: i.e AT&T weren't jumping ship to Verizon (in spite of the bad press of AT&T's network) for Droids: really if Droids were SO SUPERIOR with a supposedly better network don't you think people were jumping to Verizon? (Android fans say that the reason 80% of At&T smartphone sales are iPhones are because AT&T droids are not so good as those on Verizon. If that's true why hasn't people jumped to let Verizon have faster smartphone growth than AT&T, instead the numbers show the REVERSE was happening i.e people were jumping TO AT&T to get the iPhone )

Then that's the customer Satisfaction:
The iPhone 4 is JD Power's Number One ranked phone for customer satisfaction beating EVERY single Droid out there-- that's user's response not some geek tech writer. And ALSO ChangeWave, it topped ChangeWave's poll as well. In 2009 ChangeWave director said iPhone satisfaction rates were 'on a different planet'.


ComputerWorld "Calling Apple's numbers "on a different planet," Carton pointed out that Apple's overall satisfaction rating among consumers -- those who said they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" -- was 99%."

This leads to 'stickiness' or 'customer loyalty', I won't use up more space to include quotes but Apple and iPhone customer loyalty i.e that will buy another Apple product ALSO tops the charts. Are those 90% plus satisfied users onAT&T all of a sudden going to buy a Droid?

LASTLY:
Even if Tech writer in love with Android are Bullish, Android MANUFACTURERS themselves are worried. Take Motorola:

EnterprisePost on Motorola at Credit Suisse late 2010:

"In discussing Q1 2011 guidance, Jha said first quarters are always down for Motorola and Q1 2011 will be no different. Jha also said, however, that there will potentially be a new competitive dynamic developing at Verizon Wireless Motorolas premier carrier partner in the U.S. in the first quarter next year that could have a significant negative impact on Motorolas first quarter."

We now know the competitive dynamic is the iPhone and the CEO has said it's going to be a significant negative impact.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
scarbarough 12th Jan 2011
@Davewrite Of course the iPhone has people jumping to AT&T from other carriers, and of course it has a high percentage of their smartphone sales - that's the only carrier in the US that has it. On the other hand, every major US carrier has multiple very good Android phones, so there's no real driver to jump from one carrier to another based on their Android offering.

You posted that the customer satisfaction data was from 2009...since then, there have been multiple upgrades to Android, and IOS has come into existence. Do you really think numbers that are over a year old are still relevant?

I'm not saying that the iPhone isn't a great phone - it is! But the Android experience has drastically improved, and there is a very sizable chunk of consumers and tech geeks who are very happy with it.
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ha...
Davewrite Updated - 12th Jan 2011
@scarbarough

you say : "On the other hand, every major US carrier has multiple very good Android phones, "

but that argument falls flat because Android lovers love to say Droids on AT&T don't do well (as iPhone has 65-85% there) because AT&T droids are NOT AS GOOD as Verizon droids... so why don't they jump to get BETTER droids on Verizon's supposedly better network?
If the Droids ARE the same (which by Droid fans logic means they are BETTER than the iPhone) why are AT&T droid sales so pitiful? Estimates say iPhone on AT&T outnumber droid by 15 to 1!!

Also like I quoted Tim Cook in every case where iPhone moved to multiple carriers in the country they increase iPhone sales and marketshare.

as for saying the satisfaction survey for 2009, iPhone ALSO topped the 2010 polls but in 2009 Changewave gave the great quote of iphone satisfaction rates 'being on another planet'. As for Droid having improved.. well dude so has the iPhone!

Satisfaction polls of thousands of USERS are more interesting than the single opinion of tech writer who has his own bias. Just curious with dozens of Android models how come not even ONE beats the iPhone in satisfaction rates? Fanboyism? Can't be unless all those millions and millions of people who bought the iPhone as their first Apple product (look at apple marketshare of consumers, the growth shows many buyers are new to Apple) are INSTANTLY CONVERTED TO A FANBOY! Looking at the blogs and talkbacks they seem to be as much if not more Android fanboys so how come the satisfaction rates of most Droid phones are so much lower?

Apple's high satisfaction rates also Can't be due to marketing as other tech companies spend as much or more than Apple, Microsoft which has half it's profits from selling to enterprise and to OEMS (that shouldn't require as much advertising as to consumers) - spends THREE times as much on advertising per year than Apple. Another example, the Moto Droid 1 ad launch campaign was 100 million or one fifth of Apple's ENTIRE ad budget of 2009 (macs, ipods, phones, software,mac stores, iTunes etc for the year!)
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Moto CEO 'competitive Dynamic' at Verizon 'Significant Negative Impact'
Davewrite Updated - 12th Jan 2011
CEO of Moto at Credit Suisse in Dec 2010:

EnterprisePost

""In discussing Q1 2011 guidance, Jha said first quarters are always down for Motorola and Q1 2011 will be no different. Jha also said, however, that there will potentially be a new competitive dynamic developing at Verizon Wireless Motorolas premier carrier partner in the U.S. in the first quarter next year that could have a significant negative impact on Motorolas first quarter."

We of course now know the Competive Dynamic is the iPhone and the CEO thinks that it's going to be a Significangt Negative Impact on Moto.

But then again what does the CEO of Moto know?
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
jabster17 12th Jan 2011
I'd like to see Moto on Sprint (and not Nextel, either). I have a Samsung Moment--love Android, hate the hardware. Second Samsung phone I have had (first one was a dumb phone), both POS. Next time I'm going HTC or Sanyo.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
Gis Bun 12th Jan 2011
I am an actual shareholder for MoMo and MoSo [the other half of the split company] as I use to work for them.

Judging from their history, I can see MoMo having something good out and then follow up with a piece of crap. Razr was a good phone. It's little siblings were crap.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
RTPritch 12th Jan 2011
um... Windows Phone? anyone? Buehler?
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Simple math
the.ksmm 12th Jan 2011
I think that tech buffs will continue to look to Android for cutting-edge technology and rapid innovation. The less technically inclined will probably continue adopting the iPhone.

I'll leave it to you to guess which of those two groups has the greater numbers.
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Good article
LarsDennert Updated - 12th Jan 2011
ATT Droid sales are poor because ATT droid lovers ARE leaving ATT.

Motorola (and maybe Nokia), IMO is the only hardware manufacturer to build phones of equal quality to Apple. HTCs are generally not durable phones and Samsung is often hit or miss.

From the continual rants it is obvious there are two camps. iOS and Android. Though similar in concept they are very different in execution. iOS works pretty flawlessly at what it does. For the average phone user it is a godsend. Android lets you do more at the cost of not doing all those things as well.

Neither will lose out. It's Symbian, RIM, Palm, WM and all the dumb-phones that are losing market share to iOS and Android.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
james347 12th Jan 2011
But it's not.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
Brian_D 13th Jan 2011
iPhone makes it to Verizon, but no, you must wait and pay for another phone for the existing 4g. Oh yeah, then we'll make you wait for dual-core once more and pay again 6 months later.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
DeusXMachina 14th Jan 2011
@Brian_D

Please name a SINGLE existing 4G phone on Verizon.

Okay, shut up now.
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Geeks and Fan Boys are both wrong
weisschr 13th Jan 2011
This is not a technology argument at its core. To see why tech has almost never ruled the day, all you need to do is look at the graveyard of better tech that died in the marketplace, including OS/2, PowerPC, SGI, Cray, BeOS, NeXT Computers, DVD HD, etc. This has very little to do with tech and all about the marketplace. The differences between Android phones and devices and the iPhone and the iPad are not relevant to most consumers.

Why does RIM have any market share left if this were just about tech? The answer - market share, commitment, and placement.

The iPhone has consumer appeal. It is stylish, it is a big iPod, and it was a first mover. Its momentum is enormous. The *only* reason Android has taken off is because the iPhone was only available on AT&T. Now that Android has market share and a following, Android will survive and thrive. However, moving the iPhone to more than one carrier should only retard this growth.

Regardless of what is under the hood, most consumers cannot appreciate the technology differences between the i-Line and the Android machines. Readers of ZDnet may make their decisions this way, but none of my consulting customers do.

Apple is coming up with an updated iPad, and they are tying the "app" approach to their MacOS line, building a seamless experience regardless of platform. This has always been Apple's strength, focusing on the user experience.

Android hardware lacks this cohesive user experience component, at least in terms of market perception. The first Android vendor who can plug into this mojo should become the dominant Android player. Will that be Motorola? I doubt it.

Unfortunately, people vote for image and marketing and not what is the better technology decision. Consumers and not technologists will decide who wins.
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Much of the world...
dave@... 13th Jan 2011
Tc. Already has the iPhone available on every carrier. And while that sometimes means Apple leads the market in sales, as a company, there is no current case of any iOS market growing faster than Android.

Apple will definitely gain from the Verizon deal, since AT&T is apparently a larger negative to some people that the iPhone is a positive. But, given all the adoration in the press, among the always-evangelizing fanboi crowd, and the fact a large number of buyers don't give a hoot about the carrier, they choose by phone and price, i think this is a relatively small group.

If the expressed dissatisfaction with AT&T is real and not just whining, a significant volume of Verizon iPhone buyers will be AT&T expats, not Android. And AT&T will certainly do what they can to stop that, or at least turn the flood to a trickle if they can. Either way, the volume is not moving away from Android.

There are.also AT&T haters who wanted iPhones, who today use dumb phones... this could be good for Apple and Verizon without hurting Android. Truth is, while Android has increasingly won on percentage, the market for all smartphones has been growing faster than the share of any single type. This is how Android can still win on new phone share in a year (2010) that saw 40 million iPhones and 50 million Blackberries sold. The cellular market is a 1.2 billion unit per year market, and growing. Each year, more of that is in smartphones.

Apple fanbois seem to think Apple success can only come now at the expense of Android, but that won't happen, and doesn't need to. Apple won't even try to fight it, anymore than they tried in any real way to go beyond 5% or so in the global PC market. Apple's all about maximizing profits, not unit volume. The currrently have the top single smartphone model, but even when the iPhone isn't top anymore, expect Apple to keep a significant chunk of smartphone industry profits, way beyond what their volume suggests they ought to.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
DeusXMachina 14th Jan 2011
@dave@...

You contradict yourself repeatedly throughout your post.
Case in point:

"a large number of buyers don't give a hoot about the carrier, they choose by phone and price? ."

and

"If the expressed dissatisfaction with AT&T is real and not just whining, a significant volume of Verizon iPhone buyers will be AT&T expats, not Android."

The rest of your arguments just fall apart at that point.
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
meetyoulater@... 14th Jan 2011
As a consumer, investing in motorola as a war contractor might be more appealing and profitable.

"Communication devices for military occupation:
The $100 million contract used to develop and supply the ?Mountain Rose? secure cell phone communication system to the [apartheid] Israeli military directly enhances the coordination and monitoring capabilities of the occupying forces in their military operations in the Palestinian territories."
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RE: Five reasons why it may be Motorola Mobility's time
meetyoulater@... 14th Jan 2011
The $100 million contract used to develop and supply the ?MouCRntain Rose? secure cell phone communication system to the [apaCRrtheid] IsraCReli military directly enhances the coordination and monitoring capabilities of the occupying forces in their mCRilitary operations in the PaCRleCRstinian terrCRitories."
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Both will do well...
scott@... 14th Jan 2011
My wife and I have: 2 iPod Touches, 1 iPhone 3G (was on the Spanish Telefonica network, now legally unlocked), 1 iPad, 1 Motorola Droid, 1 Nook Color, and 1 Verizon MiFi...
I've got the developers kits for both Android and iOS.
We'll be upgrading her old cellphone to an iPhone 4 (on Verizon), my Droid to a Bionic, and my MiFi to a LTE MiFi (or Samsung LTE mobile hotspot) in the next 6 months, and with luck, my Spanish iPhone 3G to an iPhone 5 (if that's available by this summer).
Both are very good OSes, each with distinct advantages and disadvantages... and the competition is doing great things for both of them.
It's silly to just keep your blinders on, and assume that if somebody prefers the other, that he or she is some sort of fanboy!

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