ICS coming to the RAZR and XOOM Wi-Fi, within the next month or so.
Motorola has updated its global schedule for rolling out the Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) flavour of Android, to its devices.
And the news for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region is that the Motorola RAZR and XOOM Wi-Fi editions will see the upgrade process starting this quarter, in other words before June is out.
The XOOM 2 and XOOM 2 Media Edition's roll out is slated to begin in the third quarter of 2012.
Both the XOOM Wi-Fi + 3G, and Motorola Atrix are still in the evaluation and planning phase. That's stage one of the ICS upgrade process, so it'll be a little while before anything happens on the roll-out front.
The Motorola DEFY, DEFY+ and DEFY MINI, FIRE and FIRE XT, Milestone 2, Motoluxe, and Motorola Pro+ will unfortunately not be making the Ice Cream transition, and will remain on Gingerbread.
In a blog post, Motorola explained: "You may be wondering why all devices aren't being upgraded to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Here's the deal. We work very closely with Google and cell phone carriers for every software update. And, obviously we want the new release to improve our devices. If we determine that can't be done - well then, we're not able to upgrade that particular device."
Or to put it another way, if the phone's going to run like a three-legged donkey after a belly full of ice cream, then Motorola won't be feeding the beast that particular dessert.
Source: Motorola Blog
Google completes $12.5bn deal for Motorola Mobility - Daily Telegraph
The completion follows approval by Chinese, US and European regulators.
Conditions from China's Ministry of Commerce included Google keeping its Android software for gadgets such as smartphones and tablet computers free and open for at least five years.
Regulators in the US and elsewhere have stressed that they will be watching to make sure that the Mountain View, California-based company does not use its acquisition of Motorola Mobility to obtain unfair advantage in the market.
Apple and South Korea's Samsung, whose devices are powered by Google's Android software, are currently involved in lengthy and costly patent fights being waged on several continents.
In announcing the Motorola Mobility acquisition in August, Mr Page said it will "enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies."
Motorola Mobility was created in 2011 when US-based Motorola split the company into a mobile devices unit and a government and public safety division known as Motorola Solutions.
Vodafone takes 4 billion stg writedown on European weakness - The Guardian
Page: Motorola Mobility acquisition is key to Google's future - ZDNet
Google’s CEO announced today that it has closed on its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola and named former Americas chief Dennis Woodside to take the helm.
Anytime a company spends almost $13 billion for a company, it’s news. And anytime Larry Page writes a blog, it’s news. But today’s announcement, made possible after Google finally cleared government scrutiny in the U.S. and China, is huge news. It is how Google aims to compete against Apple.
In his blog, Page predicts that mobile devices will replace desktop PCs, namely smartphones, including Motorola’s hugely successsful Droid line, and tablets, where Motorola has failed to elevate Google’s Android to the same stature. (Hence the buy)
See also: CNET: Google closes $12.5B deal | A daunting to-do list ahead | Google: We now own Motorola Mobility | Android tablet surge will be led by Google-Motorola, HP, Dell | The tablet revolution is coming
“We all remember Motorola’s StarTAC, which at the time seemed tiny and showed the real potential of these devices. And as a company who made a big, early bet on Android, Motorola has become an incredibly valuable partner to Google,” Larry Page wrote today in an announcement. “It’s a well known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound–as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone.”
No one underestimates the importance of this buy to Google’s future.
Google is now a hardware company. Its decision to marry its massive software business with hardware, a model championed by Apple and passed over by Microsoft, will have long term ramifications for the company and indeed the entire ecosystem around Android and Chrome.
Compared to Apple’s iPad, Motorola’s Xoom has been a market flop. Google’s next, next generation Android tablet has to be much better.
The combined company has been making some improvements in the sales and marketing of the tablet, such as the “Ice Cream Sandwich” of Android now available on Motorola’s Xoom, and devising a strong, comprehensive strategy that melds Google’s Chrome and Android software (and enterprise applications) with Motorola Droid and Xoom lines. The $449 price cut on the Xoom also helped.
I am a longtime Droid owner and occasional iPad user who has longed for a viable Motorola tablet that can compete head on against Apple. I have hesitated on a tablet buy in part because I am awaiting a blockbuster next generation Xoom that runs a much better Android, in more elegant fashion, the way the iPad does. I want it to run Chrome well, enterprise apps well and to see some amazing innovations in the Google software space, due to the additional points of integration enabled by the marriage of Google’s software with Motorola’s mobile hardware.
I was also an early owner of Motorola’s StarTAC. I like my Droid but continue to run into snags that sometimes require a phone reboot. That may have been acceptable in the early days of the PC but they’re not in the mobile device era.
Becoming a smartphone and tablet manufacturer will have a huge impact on Google’s OEM relationships, and probably not for the better.
I would argue that it’s critical for Google to raise its stature in the open source side of the business. Getting developer buy-in for the next round of competition, in the cloud era, is huge. It appears the company is working harder to become a better citizen in this community. The Android code is back in the Linux kernel. Google continues to invest in leading open source projects such as Firefox. But the company has a ways to go to shed its proprietary image in the pure open source community.
Google names new Motorola Mobility CEO - msnbc.com
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc completed its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc and named a new chief executive for the cellphone maker, who vowed to focus on "fewer, bigger bets."
Google, which made the deal to gain access to Motorola's vast trove of technology patents, said on Tuesday that Motorola Chief Executive Sanjay Jha has stepped down and has been succeeded by Dennis Woodside, former president of Google's Americas region.
Woodside oversaw planning for the Motorola integration, according to Google. Jha will be retained to help manage a transition period.
The deal closing came just days after the companies won approval for the acquisition from the Chinese government. European and U.S. regulators approved the deal in February.
To gain approval in China, Google said the company promised to keep its Android mobile phone software open and free for at least five years and agreed to charge fair and reasonable fees for technology licenses.
Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said Woodside's "fewer, bigger bets" would mean a simpler strategy: Fewer but bigger phone launches for Motorola Mobility, which will be an independent subsidiary of Google.
Woodside hired a slew of outside executives to run the company, including Vanessa Wittman, former chief financial officer of Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc, as CFO of Motorola Mobility.
Mark Randall, the former supply chain vice president at Kindle maker Amazon.com Inc, was appointed as the mobile unit's new head of supply chain.
The company will retain some Motorola executives, including Iqbal Arshad as head of product development, and Dan Moloney as head of the set-top box business.
(Reporting By Sinead Carew; editing by John Wallace and Jeffrey Benkoe)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
Google completes Motorola deal; Woodside replaces Jha as CEO - FierceWireless
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) officially closed its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI), making the Android smartphone maker a part of its business in the biggest acquisition in Google's history. As expected, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha stepped down and will be replaced by Google executive Dennis Woodside, who formerly ran Google's advertising sales business in the Americas before taking on the job of overseeing the acquisition in the second half of last year.
Under the deal, Motorola will remain a licensee of Google's Android operating system and Google has pledged that the platform will remain open. Analysts have speculated that Google might favor Motorola over other Android makers, but Google has consistently said that will not be the case.
Google will obtain 17,000 wireless patents--including in 2G, 3G and LTE technologies--through its acquisition of Motorola and hopes to use those patents to shield other Android licensees. The deal's close had been expected following approval from Chinese regulators over the weekend.
Woodside said in a statement that Motorola's new aim is simple: "to focus Motorola Mobility's remarkable talent on fewer, bigger bets, and create wonderful devices that are used by people around the world."
Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson confirmed to FierceWireless that while many Motorola executives will be joining the new management team, two key Motorola executives will be leaving the company. Christy Wyatt, Motorola's senior vice president for enterprise, who was formerly the company's corporate vice president of software and services product management, will be leaving. Additionally, Alain Mutricy, Motorola's senior vice president of portfolio and product management, will also be stepping down. Erickson did not comment on the executives' future plans.
"It's a well known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound--as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone," Google CEO Larry Page wrote in a company blog post. "That's why it's a great time to be in the mobile business, and why I'm confident Dennis and the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come."
Interestingly, according to Bloomberg Google also recently acquired the industrial design firm, Mike and Maaike, that worked on the first Google Nexus phone. The acquisition is a possible indication that Google plans to invest further in its new hardware business.
Jha came to Motorola as co-CEO in 2008 from Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and quickly decided to transition the company's fading handset business to Google's Android platform. Motorola shot back into prominence thanks in large part to its partnership with Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) on the original Droid smartphone, and has enjoyed modest success with Android since 2009. However, the company was never able to break out from the pack of numerous Android vendors and achieve strong financial success.
Last year Jha maneuvered Google into raising its bid price 33 percent before Google eventually settled on the $12.5 billion price tag, according to a regulatory filing. According to a filing in April with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jha collected total compensation of $47.1 million in 2011, up from $13 million in 2010, mainly through higher amounts of stock and stock options.
For more:
- see this release
- see this Google blog post
- see this Reuters article
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this The Verge article
- see this IntoMobile article
Related Articles:
Google gets Chinese approval for Motorola deal, must keep Android free and open
Report: Google to expand Nexus device program to multiple OEMs
Report: Google, Motorola still unsure how to integrate
Rumor Mill: Google to ditch Motorola's set-top box division
Motorola exec: Product strategy won't change after Google acquisition
Google's Rubin: We're building a 'firewall' between Android and Motorola
Report: Google to replace Motorola CEO Jha with Woodside
Sony Xperia U vs Motorola Razr Maxx: Which One Would You Buy? - ibtimes.co.uk
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The Sony's Xperia U comes with an LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. The 3.5in screen offers multi-touch functionality and covers scratch-resistant glass. It includes Sony Mobile Bravia engine and TimeScape User Interface.
In comparison, the The Razr Maxx touts a Super AMOLED Capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. The 4.3in screen incorporates a Corning Gorilla Glass that defends the screen from everyday wear and tear.
Processor
The Xperia U is powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU and STE U8500 chispet. It includes DB8500 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).
In contrast, the Razr Maxx is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU.
Camera
The Xperia U has a rear-facing camera of five megapixel with auto-focus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch-focus, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panorama and image stabilisation. It offers video recording of 720p and a secondary VGA camera.
The Razr Maxx boasts an eight megapixel rear-facing camera with auto-focus, LED flash, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection and image stabilisation. Users can capture video of 1080p. It offers a front-facing camera of 1.3 megapixel.
Operating System
Both the Razr Maxx and Xperia U run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. The smartphones could be upgraded to Google's latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS.
Storage
The Xperia U has an internal storage of 4GB and 512MB RAM, whereas the Razr Maxx comes with an onboard storage of 16GB and 1GB RAM. In addition, it has a microSD card slot with an additional memory of 32GB.
Connectivity
Both smartphones feature Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with Wi-Fi hotspot and DLNA. The Xperia U offers support to Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR, while the Razr Maxx provides Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DO, LE and EDR.
Battery
The Sony smartphone comes with a Li-Ion 1320mAh standard battery. It allows for stand-by time of up to 260 hours on 2G and 42 hours on 3G networks. It offers talk time of up to six hours 36 minutes on 2G and five hours 36 minutes on 3G networks.
In comparison, the Razr Maxx packs Li-Ion 3300mAh standard battery which allows for talk time of up to 17.6 hours and stand by time of up to 607 hours.
Verdict
Considering all the specs of both smartphones, the Motorola Razr Maxx is a clear winner. The device, sim-free, is available in the UK for £424.97 (inc VAT) according to ITProPortal.
Telecom tariffs may rise by 90 paise in metros: Study - Daily Pioneer
The Telecom Commission is to consider the controversial proposals of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) at its meeting Thursday.
Ahead of it, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the GSM industry lobby, Tuesday unveiled consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India's assessment of the proposed spectrum pricing and its potential impact on consumers and the industry.
"Our study reveals that the impact on consumers could be very considerable and also that the industry is not ready to take any further deterioration of its financial performance," Mohammad Chowdhury, leader telecom, PwC India, told reporters.
The TRAI has said the increase would be only of over four paise per minute. Currently, the operators on an average are offering call tariffs of around 75 paise per minute.
Earlier this month, COAI warned the government that if the TRAI's recommendations were accepted, the tariffs would go up 100 percent, hitting customers hard.
"TRAI's calculations are fundamentally flawed. This would affect the people at the bottom of the pyramid significantly," said Rajat Mukherjee, chief corporate officer, Idea Cellular.
"On the other hand if the operators don't increase tariffs, they go out of business. The impact will be on competition -- if the competition decreases, the tariffs rises," he added.
The PwC report slammed the TRAI's assessment that the share of non-voice services would grow to 50 percent of the revenue of a firm by 2020.
In 2011-12, the non-voice revenue was 14 percent of the total revenue. Of the 14 percent, message-based services contribute about 9 percent and pure data services contribute nearly 5 percent.
According to the report, the financial performance of the operators will be impacted significantly by the recommendations due to the proposed heavy spectrum costs.
The TRAI has recommended, among other proposals, a reserve price of Rs.3,622 crore for 1 MHz pan-India spectrum, which is around 10 times higher than the price at which 2G licences were allocated in 2008 under former Telecom Minister A. Raja.
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