Zander the great

Around this time last year, a lot of people were predicting an end to one of the most significant and fruitful carrier/vendor relationships of the last 10 years. The connection between Nextel Communications and Motorola gave birth to a service--push-to-talk--that changed the fortunes of Nextel during the last decade, and could change the fortunes of an entire industry during this decade.

But last year, amid reports that Nextel was unhappy with the performance of Motorola's latest vocoder and increasingly dissatisfied with Motorola as an organization, there were persistent rumors that Nextel would begin to hire other vendors for future network projects and end its Motorola relationship.

This week, those rumors seem all but dead. The difference between last year and this week, according to Nextel itself, is Motorola's Edward Zander, who took the CEO reins from Motorola scion Christopher Galvin last winter.

Tim Donahue, president and CEO of Nextel, told the crowd at this week's Lehman Bros. Global Wireless Conference, "Zander is going to have a very positive effect at Motorola. This guy is very customer-centric. He realizes that Nextel is his biggest customer."

Donahue said Zander has made changes that have improved the relationship between the two companies, including changes in who manages the Nextel account for Motorola.

Though Motorola has already displayed financial improvement since Zander assumed leadership, questions remain about the company's future. Most recently, industry watchers have been speculating about the possible divestiture of its handset business.

But whatever happens, Zander has made the notoriously fussy CEO of Motorola's most significant carrier customer happy again, and that can go an awful long way.

E-mail me at doshea@primediabusiness.com.