14 DAY TRIAL // Motorola has been reported recently to cut more jobs from its Mobile Division, among which 77 employees are from the Windows Mobile development team working at the company's Plantation, Florida facility. The layoffs were suggested as being an indicator of the fact that the mobile phone maker was on its way to leaving Windows Mobile development aside, yet Motorola once again denied the rumors.
Maya Komadina, a Motorola spokeswoman, stated that the company would continue to support Microsoft's operating system on its devices. “It is important to note that Motorola's strategy for the Mobile Devices business has not changed – we continue to focus on Windows Mobile as one of our software platforms, and there are teams working on Windows Mobile development at other facilities,” she stated.
According to Bill Hughes, an analyst with In-Stat, who used to be part of Motorola's team, most often the company does not take into consideration the success of the group it subjects to layoffs, yet it most usually cuts jobs across the board. Looking at the company's history of layoffs, the recently-announced move does not necessarily mean that the phone manufacturer is getting ready to ditch Windows Mobile.
Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of the handset division, announced in October that the company planned to cut support for most of the operating systems, while maintaining a focus on Android and Windows Mobile. Motorola's handset division is going through rough times at the moment, and all eyes are turned towards it, in an attempt to observe any signs that might suggest a change of plans.
Jack Gold, analyst at J. Gold Associates, stated that Moto used to provide support for almost all mobile platforms present in the wild. According to him, it’s a good thing that the company kept only these two OSes. Windows Mobile-powered handsets will be targeted at the enterprise level, while it could also allow Symbol, a Motorola group, to further develop devices such as handheld barcode scanners for vertical markets. At the same time, the Android platform is open source and can offer the phone maker a way to build a phone that isn't a "me-too" device, Gold said.