Motorola will launch "at least one direct-to-consumer device with Google" next year, CEO Sanjay Jha said in an earnings conference call today
transcribed by SeekingAlpha.com.
In the context of Motorola's smartphone lineup, that means the manufacturer may have been tapped to deliver one of the follow-ups to Google's much-heralded
HTC Nexus One phone.
But the mysterious Google-phone will only be one of more than 20 Android-powered smartphones coming this year, Jha said. At least ten of those will run Motorola's MOTOBLUR social-networking software, he said.
A new version of MOTOBLUR will "offer additional security and device management functionality" to appeal to enterprise users, Jha said.
Meanwhile, Motorola continues to back out of the feature-phone market. Motorola expects the market for mid-to-high-priced feature phones to "meaningfully decline throughout the year," Jha said in the SeekingAlpha transcript, and they'll fall back on manufacturing partners to make lower-end phones.
You're less likely to see low-end Motorola phones here in the U.S. next year, too. Jha pegged their lower end lineup as being for "a portfolio of low-end voice phones for China, for Latin America, for southeast Asia, very little bit for U.S. and very little bit for Central and Eastern Europe."
Two areas where Motorola may keep investing in feature phones are rugged phones, such as the
Barrage for Verizon, and iDen phones such as the ones on Sprint's Nextel network, Jha said in the transcript.
Motorola shipped 2 million Android smartphones during the fourth quarter of last year, and they expect to ship 11 to 14 million next year, Jha said. The US will "dominate" Motorola smartphone sales next year, Jha said.
"I think U.S. is clearly the most important marketplace," he said.
Overall phone sales will be down from last year because the company is moving away from cheaper feature phones and into more profitable smartphones, he said.
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