Verizon Wireless spent $100 million in marketing the original Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid, an astonishing amount that left many consumers to believe that Verizon was the first carrier to sell a Google (NSDQ: GOOG) OS phone, and that they were called “Droids” (rather than Android).
That spending spree helped to boost Motorola’s first-quarter sales, and now the handset-maker, which is far from out of the woods, has inked a deal with Verizon Wireless to ensure that the carrier heavily promotes some of its devices, including two smartphones in July, reports the WSJ.
The partnership is beneficial to both: Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha still has to reverse its dwindling market share before they spin off the mobile device division as a stand-alone business. Likewise, Verizon Wireless does not yet have access to the iPhone, and must pick phones — backed by huge marketing campaigns — that can compete with Apple’s momentum that just doesn’t stop.
While Motorola has already had some early successes since adopting the Google OS in August 2008, it’s fate is far from sealed. Its cellphone division is still losing an average of $22 for each device it ships. What’s scary about that figure is that is nearly as much as Palm (NSDQ: PALM) was losing before it surrendered and sold itself to HP (NYSE: HPQ), according to analysts.
It was at an investor conference on Thursday when Jha signlaed that he was latching on to Verizon’s successful Droid franchise to help meet the division’s goal of being profitable by the end of the year. “We will introduce new Droid products in the Verizon franchise,” he said.
Verizon Wireless is definitely banking on people associating “Droid” with its line-up of Android devices — and not Motorola devices in particular. Verizon Wireless licensed the brand “Droid” from Star Wars creator Lucasfilm Ltd. and has used it also on HTC devices. Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless’s CEO said: “If [customers] think Android, that’s the generic. If they think Droid, that’s going to be the latest and the greatest on our network.”

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