Motorola has greatly benefited from CEO Sanjay Jha’s calculated bet on Android. The company was losing hundreds of millions of dollars when Jha took over in 2008, but it has since reversed fortunes and is self-estimated to be profitable by the end of the year. That will come in handy when Motorola splits its mobile division into a new company named Motorola Mobility.
Android has been credited for Motorola’s turnaround since the runaway success of the Droid. As Motorola Mobile makes filings to prepare for a switch to an independent mobile company, we get a look at just how dramatic that turnaround has been. In the first half of 2009, before the release of the Droid and Cliq, Motorola lost $885 million dollars. In the first half of 2010, with several Android devices in markets across the globe, the company lost only $132 million.
When Motorola becomes a standalone company, Android will most likely not be the only OS. CEO Sanjay Jha previously said that he’d like to have a proprietary OS if the money was available; that money will probably be available based on a recent report by Bloomberg news. Bloomberg says that Motorola will start Moto Mobility with $3.5 billion in cash for operations and acquisitions, likely for software companies. The company has already purchased a software company named Azingo, and more could follow.
It’s wise for Motorola to expand beyond being a one-trick pony less they risk falling back into the RAZR trap. However, Android will still play an integral role in Motorola’s business. Heck, it saved Motorola’s business.
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