Motorola To Spin Off Cell Phone Division

For a while, whenever you saw someone using a cell phone it was most likely a Motorola RAZR. To me, it was a like a sci-fi show where every person in that world had agreed on a single silver jumpsuit to wear and nobody was to wear anything else. But in the real world, consumers would quickly become uninterested with this concept… much like what has happened with the RAZR.

While other manufacturers like Samsung (with the Gleam for Verizon, the M520 for Sprint, the Beat for T-Mobile, and the BlackJack II for AT&T) are keeping the innovation going, Motorola has been providing consumers with rehashes of the RAZR with models like V3i, V3r, V3a, Ve, V3c, V3m, V3xx, and V3t. And while the RAZR2 is slimmer, it is not doing as well as expected given how phenomenally well the first RAZR sold.

Motorola’s solution is to break its handset division off (from its broadband and mobility-solutions businesses) in to a separate, publicly traded company. According to Motorola President & CEO Greg Brown, the break-off “will provide improved flexibility, more tailored capital structures, and increased management focus — as well as more targeted investment opportunities for our shareholders.”

When will we, as consumers of the latest wireless devices, see the effects? It sounds like the answer is a “wait and see,” as this move isn’t expected to be completed until next year - the hiring of a new CEO to head up that division is still a work in process.

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