Motorola Mobility (the handset part) is reported to be working on its own Web-based smartphone operating system as an alternative to Android. By Ian Scales.
Information Week has the story. It says Motorola has been hiring the right people to make such an endeavour work and quotes Jonathan Goldberg, an analyst with Deutsche Bank in San Francisco,
"I know they're working on it," he said in a phone interview. "I think the company recognizes that they need to differentiate and they need options, just in case. Nobody wants to rely on a single supplier."
Goldberg said it's unclear how far along Motorola's operating system effort is and how serious the company is in seeking an Android alternative.
"They don't want to give Wall Street and developers the impression that they're going back to the Motorola of old where they're working on 50 million operating systems at once," he said. "They want to be financially disciplined about this."
The key here is probably the 'Web based' bit. This sounds like a medium to long term effort - a couple of years at least - to design an OS that will dispense with native applications in favour of Web apps. If, in two or three years time it becomes clear that this the direction the market (or part of it) is taking, then Motorola has planted a flag.
Even Google itself, of course, believes in the Web app and is prepping its Chrome OS to intercept the possible opportunity. Perhaps Motorola believes the same.
Sourse: Information Week
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