Will Zander's Smoke and Mirrors Be Enough To Save His Job?

from the thinner dept

Tue, May 15th 2007 11:09am — Carlo Longino

Motorola continues to struggle as it hunts for a device to follow up the success of the RAZR. Last week, the company's CEO, Ed Zander, intimated that big things were in store from the company, and would be announced at an event today -- in particular, he talked up a movie-playing phone. So what's the company announce today for its renewed attack on the mobile handset market? Four products it had already announced, and the next-generation RAZR, creatively titled the RAZR 2. The idea is that consumers will flock to the update and pay a premium price for it, but it's hard to see people paying a high price for 2005's fad. While Zander proudly talks up how the RAZR has sold almost 100 million units, he leaves out how many of those sales came only after deep price cuts. Featurewise, the device isn't particularly exciting, and it's hard to explain the reannouncements of the other four products. The company says it has more high-end, feature-rich devices in the pipeline, but they're nowhere to be seen. It's hard to see today's event as much more than Zander trying some smoke and mirrors to polish the company's image -- and his own, which has taken a hit lately. But while he's showing off new products that aren't really new, Nokia's taking market share from slow-moving Motorola.

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13 Comments

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PhysicsGuy, 15 May 2007 @ 11:36am

"and the next-generation RAZR, creatively titled the RAZR 2"

i'd rather see a RAZR 2 than a NxtGenRAZR, RAZRgenZ, RAZReMax, RAZRnano or any other retarded variant type of catch phrase that would be used for a second version in a product line. or are you one of THOSE people carlo?
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alaric, 15 May 2007 @ 11:39am

Pay the Engineers/designers more
and ed less.

Razr is the product of good design and not of mr zander. The solution to a sequel is more design talent, not mr. zander.
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rEdEyEz, 15 May 2007 @ 12:04pm

gimme a fix - quick
First we had the "Crackberry," then "Razr," now...

I know, how about "RazrZ Edge?" ..."Koke Razr?"

bleeding edge technojunk, can't get enough.
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Joe Schmoe, 15 May 2007 @ 12:06pm

> Motorola continues to struggle as it hunts for a device to follow up the success of the RAZR.

How about an [iTunes] SLVR w/o the freakn 100 song limit?!?!?!

There's nothing, save for the song limit (and well, that I just to want it [iPhone]) that would make me jump ship on my SLVR for an iPhone. I really think the SLVR could be real competition if it was allowed to be...
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Joe Schmoe, 15 May 2007 @ 12:08pm

Go ahead and tell me it's not Moto's fault (the limit), I know...
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Bobby Cannon, 15 May 2007 @ 12:33pm

Re: gimme a fix - quick
Can't name it "RazrZ Edge" because AC/DC would have to sue them for the album Razor's Edge. :)
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Wyatt, 15 May 2007 @ 12:45pm

Woo
I work for Motorola.. I've heard interesting things coming from various departments. BTW, phones may be Motorola’s biggest biz (at the moment), but it’s definitely not the only one. Radios are still a huge market for which we hold the biggest share. Motorola may be in a slump, but I don’t hold Ed accountable for it either. I think this market is way too tight for any company to stay on top for long. Think of all the teenagers who have an attention span of seconds, they are the ones driving this market. That’s a tuff market to hold on to.
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Apennismightier, 15 May 2007 @ 12:47pm

Future Motorola RAZR ideas
Motorola to develop:

BlAZR - the RAZR with a flamethrower in the flip antenna part of the phone for you smokers.

LAZR - the phone with an elongated grabber to reach random stuff around the house and pick it up while you are lazily talking on your phone

TAZR - muggers bothering you while distracted on your phone? The new TAZR packs 15000 volts of anti mugger electricity so you can enjoy talking for hours

GrAZR - the phone that features such grooming items as a hair trimmer, nail clippers, pocket knife and lipstick applicator

L33ZR - the phone that translates everything into Leetspeak, or 13375|o34|
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wozmac, 15 May 2007 @ 1:04pm

A Fluke
I don't work for Motorola but how many Kick a**s handsets have they ever had?

Here in Euroland the Motorola seemed to be known for boring robust handsets with impenetrable menu's.

Then the sexy Razr.

then what was it a Fluke?
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Lernin2Herf, 15 May 2007 @ 2:42pm

Motorola bytes
Neither my wife, nor I have had any luck with the Motorola's. They just don't hold up like a nokia.

All I really want is a cheap, small, easy, candy bar with bluetooth, and nothing else.

No internet, no camera, no tunes, no tv, maybe a message, but no email.
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Wyatt, 15 May 2007 @ 3:05pm

Re: Motorola bytes
However you or your wife are not the target market. Nokia has a variety of over indulgent and useless phones as well. I've never owned a cell phone for more the a few months so have had no problems with any company except the service provider. They are the real problem in my opinion.
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Matt, 15 May 2007 @ 4:07pm

itunes limit on slvr
they're are hacks to get around the limit if you search for them. I've never needed them but there is a forum devoted to the SLVR that tells how to get around this.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 May 2007 @ 5:47pm

Too Little, Too Late
So the next generation RAZR camera phone will still have a crappy, blurry, non-autofocus camera? Oh wow, I can hardly wait.
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