GigaOM » Motorola

The internet of things: a market landscape

Jon Collins — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:55:20 +0000

What can we expect the IoT landscape to look like, and how will its impact be felt? And is the attention being given by governments, manufacturers, and industry players merited, or is this just a fad? In this paper we look at the trends leading the growth of the internet of things, its components, and its characteristics. We examine the scale of the different opportunities and early examples of use cases. Finally, we look at potential inhibitors to adoption and potential challenges, notably around security, privacy, and system failure.

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Welcome to the complicated world of Android, Sundar Pichai

Tom Krazit — Thu, 30 May 2013 18:32:22 +0000

Google’s Sundar Pichai does not have an easy job: he’s now overseeing both of Google’s key computing projects — Android and Chrome — while attempting to convince everyone that Google won’t play favorites with its Motorola division. Clearly, however, not all Android partners are created equal.

Pichai’s appearance at D11 Thursday didn’t break a lot of new ground, save for the “pure Google” version of the HTC One handset that Pichai showed off to the crowd and the news that the curiously named Google Play Music All Access service is coming to iOS. He showed off the HTC One, curiously enough, in response to a question from All Things D’s Walt Mossberg about Google’s relationship with Android partners and specifically its relationship with Samsung, a company which dominates the Android world and which introduced a smaller version of its flagship Galaxy S 4 Thursday that Pichai claimed he first learned about on Techmeme this morning.

If that’s true, then Google certainly has different relationships with different partners. Later in the session, Pichai said he was “very excited” about what Motorola has planned over the next six months. While we first heard confirmation of the Moto X Wednesday, the remaining products in what CEO Dennis Woodside called “a portfolio of phones” Wednesday are not something widely known beyond the rumor mills.

There are a couple of interpretations here.

Communication between Samsung and Google has dried up if the head of Android didn’t know (or didn’t care to know) that his most important partner was releasing a smaller version of its highest-profile phone until the rest of us did, the same day he was making a high-profile public appearance to show off a competitor-designed phone.
Not only is Pichai aware of all the Android products that Motorola has planned for 2013, he’s had a chance to discuss the thinking behind the decisions made in designing the phones, even if the Android team isn’t doing anything special for Motorola, as both Pichai and Woodside insisted this week.
This is probably most likely: Nothing has really changed and that Android continues to be a chaotic mess that Google makes a half-hearted attempt to stay on top of but which no one can really manage, given the sheer number of partners and devices involved. Google has certainly worked closely with Android partners in the past as they got their first phones out the door, including Samsung, HTC, and LG, so it’s not that surprising that Android leaders would have worked closely with Motorola as it reboots.

It’s an interesting time for Pichai and Android as he assumes the guiding role vacated by Android founder and longtime leader Andy Rubin, who Pichai said “stepped back” two months ago to pursue other interests at Google. There’s a lot of “co-opetition” in the Android world at the moment, and Pichai has the fun task of dealing with it.

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Motorola confirms Moto X; will be built in Texas

Tom Krazit — Wed, 29 May 2013 23:15:07 +0000

Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside confirmed Wednesday at D11 that Motorola will introduce the Moto X smartphone later this year, calling it a “hero” device that the Google-owned company hopes will make Motorola relevant once again. The device will also be built in the U.S. just outside of Fort Worth, Tex., in what Woodside called “a first.”

The Moto X is “more contextually aware of what’s going on around it,” Woodside said, teasing attendees by saying he’s carrying the phone in his pocket but declining to show it off. Other products are coming later, but expect this device to be the centerpiece of Motorola’s strategy this fall. Reports have been circulating for some time about the “X” project inside Motorola but this is the first time the company has confirmed it.

The smartphone industry is famously concentrated in China, where low-cost manufacturing and a lot of specialized factories and suppliers have set up shop. Motorola will assemble 70 percent of the Moto X in Texas, with other component work having to be sourced and manufactured elsewhere. It will employ 2,000 people at the plant.

Woodside reiterated that Motorola, despite being owned by the creator of Android, has “no access to Android code. … There is no advantage that has been conferred to us.” He defended Google’s decision to invest $12.5 billion in Motorola by saying “we don’t need necessarily to see the exact strategic fit with our current business” in order to pull the trigger on a deal; it’s more about investing in technologies that will help shape the future, he said.

Woodside was joined onstage by Regina Dugan, formerly of DARPA and now currently senior vice president for Advanced Technology & Projects at Motorola. She showed off an “electronic tattoo” that could be used for authentication as well as a concept called “vitamin authentication,” producing a tiny pill with a tiny chip in it that apparently can be swallowed and kept inside the body to unlock something. It appears to be a take on the “ingestible sensor” developed and marketed by Proteus Digital Health.

Here’s a look at the electronic tattoo courtesy of AllThingsD’s Asa Mathat:

Regina Dugan of Motorola shows off an “electronic tattoo” at D11. Credit: Asa Mathat/D: All Things Digital

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HTC One and the harsh reality of the Android ecosystem

Om Malik — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:30:18 +0000

A few days ago when hanging out with a friend, I got a chance to play around with HTC One, the newest and shiniest Android phone on the market (of course until it wasn’t when Sony launched its Xperia Z.) I was quite impressed by the build quality, the industrial design and the beauty of the device. Despite its supersize — I have normal people’s hands — it did feel like something I would want to buy, especially if I was picking amongst the ever increasing array of Android smartphones.

Maybe, I thought to myself, HTC was going to make a comeback. I mean, these were the guys who jumpstarted the Android smartphone ecosystem in partnership with Google and T-Mobile USA. These were the guys who innovated fast and even came up with their own skin for Android. They pushed the design and speed envelope. They had edgy marketing. They were the first movers and their early sales were red-hot.

And yet, when they spent $300 million on headphones maker Beats by Dre, it became obvious that this company was going to run into some stormy weather. Of course, it was an idea that didn’t go down well with many of its fans and its investors — HTC eventually sold back half its stake.

This (relatively) tiny Taiwanese company was going to get squeezed by cheaper Android phones on one end and Samsung on the other. In fact, as far back as 2010 we have argued that the real smartphone battle was going to be between Apple and Samsung. And when it comes to hardware, nothing really has changed. It is Apple vs Samsung.

According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung now accounts for about 95 percent of the total operating profits of the global Android business. During the first quarter of 2013, Samsung had an operating profit of $5.1 billion, while LG made $100 million and all other vendors (HTC, ZTE, Huawei, Sony and no-name brands) collectively made $100 million in operating (not net) profit.

It is hardly surprising to see that HTC is in trouble. A report in The Verge suggested that HTC’s chief product officer, Kouji Kodera, has left the company. The report also implied that other senior executives are leaving the company. The most recent high-profile bet — the HTC First, which was launched in partnership with Facebook — has been a flop and one wonders if the company really has the wherewithal, both intellectual and financial, to undertake such experiments.

I am not sure if people remember, but Motorola was another company that found itself on a Sysephian quest and eventually found a $12 billion bailout from Google. The trouble with the smaller Android players is that despite all the talk about a PC-like ecosystem of sourcing components and using others to assemble their products, it is fundamentally not true.

Apple has used all the billions in the bank to lock up supplies for processors, memory chips, radios, displays and other such components at favorable prices. It has worked out long term manufacturing arrangements with the likes of Foxconn. It has its own retail outlets. While most of us try and focus on Apple’s hardware and software integration, we forget that it is software, hardware and supply chain integration that allows the company to sell 37.5 million phones in the most recent quarter. It allows the company to make phones that meet the needs of different carriers.

Samsung too is an integration beast. It owns memory chip plants. It makes its own processors. It makes displays and it owns the factories. It has the unique ability to churn out new products faster than anyone else in the consumer electronics business and thus overwhelm the market with dozens of models. Just look at the many flavors on its latest Samsung S4 device and you start to see that this is a game only for big boys.

The only other company with Apple and Samsung-like manufacturing oomph was Nokia. I say was, because they are losing a grip on the phone business. However, their supply chain and manufacturing was legendary. It still is. I have yet to see a badly made Nokia smartphone — I just see smartphones with an OS that makes no sense. I bet if they entered the market with their own flavor of Android — something we suggested in 2010 — they would instantly become number three in the smartphone market, behind Samsung and Apple.

Sadly, smaller players like HTC can’t compete with the manufacturing and marketing capabilities of Samsung. The HTC One, which is an awesome looking device, was hit by manufacturing issues earlier this year. So it needs to rethink its strategies. HTC needs to become comfortable with the idea of being a one or two product company, and hope that it can keep comping up with winning products every single time. Even that is a long shot. The marketing budgets of Samsung and Apple are enough to finance some small nations.

HTC’s story is all too familiar to those who have studied the first mover phenomenon. A story in Economist points out that innovators captured seven percent of their market over time. THey point to various examples like White Castle who invented the idea of fast food burger joint but McDonalds is the big daddy now. Apple and Samsung are going through some of that as well. The lesson here for everyone — even tiny startups — is as Scott Anthony once perfectly said (and I paraphrase him): no one remembers who was leading the race midway through, and everyone remembers who finished first. And in order to finish first, a lot has to go right.

So where do companies like HTC go? And sad as it might be, perhaps nowhere. I am going to do my bit to give them some support — I will buy that HTC One, just because it is actually a great little device. It truly is.

5-year HTC stock chart, source: Yahoo Finance

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EU warns Motorola over standards-essential patent ‘abuse’

David Meyer — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:00:12 +0000

Europe’s antitrust authorities have warned Motorola, which is owned by Google, over its use of standards-essential patents as legal weapons. In doing so, the European Commission has partially backed the view of Apple, Microsoft and Cisco, all of which have argued that no-one should try to win injunctions based on these patents.

Standards-essential patents (SEPs) cover, as the name suggests, technology that is essential to certain standards. SEPs are supposed to be licensed by the patent-holder on so-called fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms — essentially, because this technology is so important, the patent holder is not supposed to try blocking rivals from using it as long as they are willing to pay a FRAND rate.

In the case of Motorola, the SEPs in question cover part of the GPRS standard, which is in turn part of the rather important GSM cellular standard. Motorola and Google tried to get Apple to pay a rate of 2.25 percent of the entire device’s sale price in order to use the technology. Apple said this wasn’t a reasonable rate and Motorola sued in Germany, eventually winning its case and threatening the sales of iOS devices in that country. The Commission opened an investigation into this in April 2012.

Crucial to the Commission’s “statement of objections” today, Apple had agreed to let the German court set a reasonable licensing rate, but Motorola had pushed on with enforcing the injunction anyway. This showed Apple had been willing to pay something to Motorola – without that willingness, the Commission suggested, it might not have stepped in.

As the Commission summarized its preliminary conclusion:

“The seeking and enforcing of an injunction for SEPs can constitute an abuse of a dominant position in the exceptional circumstances of this case – where the holder of a SEP has given a commitment to license these patents on FRAND terms and where the company against which an injunction is sought has shown to be willing to enter into a FRAND licence.”

That said, Motorola maintained in its own statement today that “Apple had to make six offers before the court recognized them as a willing licensee.”

A statement of objections is effectively a warning and an invitation to the target to defend itself – after that defence has been heard, the Commission will come up with a final judgement.

In a statement on Monday, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia said SEPs should not act as blockers to competition:

“The protection of intellectual property is a cornerstone of innovation and growth. But so is competition. I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer — not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice.”

In its statement, the Commission highlighted the difference between its preliminary ruling and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) proposed Consent Order that would force Motorola to play by the FRAND rules — that order would only apply to Motorola’s future dealings, while the European Commission is preparing to rule on what Motorola has already done.

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Apple builds on its lead as top U.S. smartphone maker; HTC takes biggest dip [chart]

Rani Molla — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:18:48 +0000

Apple has padded its lead as the top U.S. smartphone manufacturer in the first quarter of this year, according to comScore data released Thursday. Samsung, the world’s top smartphone manufacturer, also had slight growth in its share of U.S. smartphone subscribers from the final quarter of last year.

All other major manufacturers lost share in a market that includes 133.7 million American smartphone owners. HTC, which Thursday debuted HTC First, a phone that comes pre-installed with Facebook custom launcher Facebook Home, had the biggest decline, with its share of smartphone users dropping 1.7 percent. Apple, meanwhile, was up almost 3.9 percentage points.

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How to manage mobile expenses in a BYOD world

aaarcilla — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 06:55:50 +0000

For bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies (and mobile devices in general), enterprises have focused on resolving issues related to the security and control of corporate resources loaded onto personal devices. What is not talked about often is expense management — a crucial component for implementing successful policies.

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Google’s Motorola wins patent for octagon smartphone shape

Jeff John Roberts — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:39:03 +0000

If you thought the era of silly shape patents was over, don’t hold your breath. Months after Apple used a patent for rounded rectangles to chase away iPad competitors, Motorola has received a patent for an eight-sided cellphone design.

The Patent Office approved the new “invention” this week and the news was first reported on Twitter by Professor Sarah Burstein:

First, rounded rectangles; now, rounded octagons. D678,232, issued to @Motorola for a “Communication Device.” http://t.co/jLkfsTM3lp—
Sarah Burstein (@design_law) March 21, 2013

Burstein, who is a design patent expert at the University of Oklahoma, explained that her “rounded octagon” comment was tongue-in-cheek but confirmed that the patent had been granted and that it covers the displayed shape of a smartphone.

She added that the scope of Motorola’s design patent is more narrow than Apple’s infamous rounded rectangles patent. Here is a picture from Apple’s patent:

To successfully invoke its new patent against an infringer, Burstein said Motorola would have to show that a consumer would find the supposedly infringing product has the same design as Motorola’s design.

The “rounded octagon” patent is likely to add more grist for critics who question the wisdom of granting monopoly protection over basic shapes and concepts (14 years for design patents, 20 for regular ones). This year, a new law in the U.S. has made it easier to obtain design patents, which are cheaper and faster to get than regular patents. Meanwhile, companies like Apple continue to use a variety of other intellectual property measures like trademark, trade dress and copyright to wrap legal force fields around their products.

The new patent may provide new ammunition to Google, which owns Motorola, in its ceaseless rounds of patent litigation with Apple and other rivals in courtrooms around the world.

The patent can be seen at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Unfortunately, the USPTO’s website only permits images to be viewed with Internet Explorer, Netscape or Opera browsers. If you’re using another browser, here’s a PDF link.

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Meet Homo Erectus Connectus — or, if you prefer, Wearable Man (infographic)

Rani Molla — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:28:58 +0000

If wearable technology wants to break into the mainstream, it has to overcome the geek factor. And that may be tough when King of the Nerds Sergey Brin is touting Google Glass on New York’s subways.

Some companies are actually opting for prominent devices as a way to show off your connectedness, or at least not lose your gadget in the wash. But as batteries get smaller, wearables could become less of a fashion statement and more about a new wave of immersive computing.

Either way, there will be a lot of competition. ABI Research predicts that the global market for wearable computing devices in health and fitness could reach 170 million devices by 2017.

At the end of the day, the design of the wearable and how it feels on your body is only half the battle. Wearable makers are hard at work making sure their gadgets can collect the right data and deliver a service to users that makes the data important and useful in their daily lives. If the body data isn’t helpful, then really, what’s the point?

We created this “bare-bones” infographic of wearable devices that are currently available and that fit the mold for what we see as the future of the connected you: data-driven services, and unobtrusive design. Which ones do you own or want to own? Click on each body section to read more about the companies and devices available.

Google Glass

Google’s “augmented reality” glasses allow you to do anything you’d normally do on your phone or laptop — record video, find directions, message your friends — but without your hands. It’s currently available only to select “creative individuals” in colors Charcoal, Tangerine, Shale, Cotton and Sky and perhaps soon in more attractive styles. ($1,500)

Watches

A number of companies including Motorola, Pebble and Basis Science have all thrown their hats in the connected watch arena. Adding new purpose to a time-warn accessory, these smart watches read texts out loud, play music, and track your exercise and health — in addition to telling time. Apple is even working on a watch that could run iOS. ($115-$300)

Bracelets

Companies like Jawbone and Fitbit are marrying data and design for a wearable computing experience that’s seamless and attractive. Their wristbands and bracelets are being used to track fitness, sleep and calories but look like a simple accessory. ($99-$129)

Jewelry

Sensors are the essential part of all wearable devices. Companies like Misfit and its Shine device use sensors that can also function as jewelry for a seamless way to track your activity. A recent Apple filing shows the company might have even broader ambitions for wearable sensors, too. ($59-$99)

Shoes

Thinkstock

From connected shoes to connected clips and inserts, feet are often the preferred place for activity trackers that show where and how far you’ve run. ($ price varies on technology)

Disclosure: Fitbit is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

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Analyzing the wearable computing market

Podcast Q&A: MotoACTV smartwatch now or wait? Lumia 822 in India? Best running apps?

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:06:41 +0000

It’s another edition of the weekly call-in show where we answer your tech questions. We start this one off with a humorous scoop on Bill Gates and a correction from our last show, then we dive right in to our Q&A.

To be a part of the show, just call in and leave a voicemail at 262-KCTOFEL. If you do, we’ll play back the question on the show and answer it. Or you can tweet me at @kevinctofel on Twitter. Each week, I’ll answer as many questions as I can while keeping the podcast to a manageable amount of time: 20 to 30 minutes at most.

SHOW NOTES:
Host: Chris Albrecht
Co-host: Kevin C. Tofel

What computer does Bill Gates use? The shocking answer is….
Should I buy a MotoACTV smartwatch now or wait until after Mobile World Congress?
Can the Verizon Lumia 822 be used in India?
What are some of the best apps for running?

SELECT PREVIOUS EPISODES:

How to write a web TV series

Ballmer’s in the Dell, do tweets ruin TV? And how ISPs are not like gas pumps

Call-in show: BB 10 Data, digital ink on Surface, and consoles v. phone games

Podcast: Kabam founder on scaling globally and designing for different platforms

Podcast: Blackberry’s in a jam, no Facebook phone and Netflix’s excellent adventure

Podcast: RoadMap Re-Run: Kickstarter’s Perry Chen on creativity and crowdsourcing

Podcast: Do you need a 128 GB iPad? Straight Talk vs. AT&T and Windows RT or Windows 8?

Facebook’s Graph-ic Search, Open Compute is Kinda Cool, Netflix vs. TWC

Why Big Data Will Be Even Bigger in 2013

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