October 2008
Motorola is hiring developers with Java and Android expertise in preparation for launching a major mobile initiative on top of Google's software platform.
This move reflects a new stage and the expansion of Motorola's mobile software strategy, which increasingly emphasizes the open source Linux operating system.
Motorola was one of the first major handset makers to embrace the Linux platform. Its earliest Linux-based phones were popular in China, enabling the company to sell over 5 million of the penguin-powered devices by 2006.
Following that initial victory, Motorola brought its Linux phones to the US with its global launch of the Razr2 in 2007.
Motorola's current Linux lineup features eight LiMo-compatible handsets and the company boasts that its total sales of Linux-based phones has exceeded 14 million as of this year.
Motorola VP of software Christy Wyatt talked about the company's commitment to Linux last month during a keynote presentation at the Open Source in Mobile conference in Berlin. She says that Motorola is betting big on Linux because the open platform reduces costs and provides a very high level of flexibility.
The rapid pace at which the smartphone market is evolving has forced Motorola and its competitors to look for technologies that can shorten their development cycles. Wyatt says that Linux facilitates that kind of agile development and can help device makers stay ahead of the curve.
Motorola has been attempting to cultivate a third-party developer ecosystem around its LiMo-compatible MOTOMAGX platform, which was first unveiled last year.
The handset maker's recently-launched MOTODEV SDK is very promising, but still has a long way to go, according to some early reviews by open source enthusiasts who have experience with other Linux mobile platforms.
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