Will the Motorola gamble hurt open source

While cutting staff, the onetime giant of mobility has apparently dropped Symbian and increased its commitment to the Google Android platform.

This is a little like your favorite manager running the Kansas City Royals. It's still a bad ball team. Supporting Android won't turn it into the Tampa Bay Rays.

While Motorola is maintaining its market share, the fact is that sales are slowing for everyone, and the worldwide recession will only accelerate the trend. Motorola is trading at levels last seen in 1992.

I don't want to see Android blamed if it can't turn things around. Motorola's problems run deep and go back decades.

In the case of Android the challenges are also enormous. What carriers want is a device that will encourage a lot more use of mobile broadband, which the iPhone does. What customers want is less carrier control, something carriers resist.

To succeed, a manufacturer has to negotiate between these two contradictory impulses, mainly by standing at the customer's side. Will Motorola put its foot down when necessary? They have no record of doing so in the past.

Oh, and good luck to Trey Hillman, but as you already know the Red Sox are tougher than the Chunichi Dragons.