Lost in the hubbub surrounding Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility is an enterprise product portfolio that becomes more interesting with the surprise merger.
Motorola Mobility was Android’s champion in the enterprise. The company was pitch
ing so-called “business ready” devices for the last year and aggressively targeting chief information officers. Motorola was courting enterprise developers, touting Exchange-based integration, VPNs and other business goodies.
Toss in Motorola Mobility’s sibling—Motorola Solutions, which is completely focused on the enterprise—and there was a solid avenue into corporations.
Although Google plans to leave Motorola Mobility as a standalone unit for the most part, it would be foolish not to take some of the acquired company’s enterprise sales teams and put them on Apps, Docs and Chromebooks.
Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said last month on the company’s earnings conference call:
In enterprise, Android is gaining momentum by offering consumers and CIOs more choices. We are supporting ongoing enterprise trials and expanding our ready for business portfolio of smartphones and webtop-enabled accessories. Upcoming devices will include more comprehensive security features, device management and enterprise support capabilities.
A combined Motorola Mobility-Google enterprise portfolio goes like this:
- Google Apps and Docs;
- Chromebooks;
- Android-based smartphones and tablets from Motorola.
That final item gives Google more of an IT stack to sell. It can leverage its traction in Google Apps and layer in Chromebooks and phones for early adopters. Google and Motorola Mobility may need to add some integration work to provide differentiation, but all the parts are there. Couldn’t Motorola’s Atrix-powered laptop embed Google’s Chrome OS instead of Linux? Also: Chromebooks get VPN, secure Wi-Fi, Citrix virtualization
Motorola Mobility has a strong reputation in the enterprise. If it’s smart, Google could leverage those assets.
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