Updated: Motorola CEO steps down

“Motorola has done everything to make the carrier happy,” Clark said. “They’re very pragmatic, and they landed a lot of carrier deals because of that pragmatism, but it’s been at the expense of their brand.”

Clark contrasted Motorola with competitor Nokia, which several years ago experimented with a diverse range of unrelated devices but eventually settled on a device line that kept a consistent user experience across its entire portfolio. Meanwhile Motorola made its devices in a vacuum, focusing on big sellers like the Razr. The result was, when Razr finally peaked, Motorola had to struggle to create another signature device and eventually failed. Meanwhile, Nokia was able to spread its appeal among numerous devices such as its Nseries multimedia devices, which have dominated the smartphone market, Clark said.

Clark expects Motorola will now take a similar approach to Nokia under Brown’s leadership, focusing on software rather than technology and thus creating a consistent user interface and feature set across its portfolio. The vendor will have a lot of catching up to do, though. By focusing on the upper high-end feature phone segment dominated by the Razr, Moto’s competitors have outpaced it in the high-end phone segment, which is now garnering a good deal of attention with devices like the iPhone. Moto’s own software approach has been highly fragmented. It has made devices powered by Windows Mobile and Linux and in September it took an ownership stake in Symbian user interface developer UIQ. Moto will not only have to settle on a consistent user interface if not a common OS, it will have to play catch-up for lost development time to make its new platform appealing, Clark said.

“When I first looked at the Razr2, I noticed the voice quality was phenomenal,” Clark said. “But it had no soul, no pizzazz. It was just a basic user interface. … Motorola will have to play catch-up.”

Brown is credited with running four businesses at Motorola, leading the second largest transaction in Motorola’s history – the $3.9 billion purchase of Symbol Technologies, and returning the automotive business to profitability by fronting its $1 billion sale. Brown has also served as CEO of network-management software company Micromuse, and has experience working at Ameritech Custom Business Services and Ameritech New Media as well as sales and marketing positions at AT&T.

The Symbol acquisition is wildly hailed as one of the bright points for Motorola during its troubled period, but Brown will have several other diverse divisions to manage in his new role. Motorola is a leader in the set-top box industry, but as set-top boxes move from proprietary pieces of hardware to open and connected multimedia gateways, it will face increasing competition. Its networks business may also face hurdles. Motorola has tried to reinvent itself as the dominant WiMAX vendor, and so far it’s enjoyed amazing success: It landed part of the coveted Sprint deal, is the sole supplier to Clearwire and has won significant contracts internationally. But some of that momentum has been checked as Sprint’s financial troubles are starting to impact its WiMAX plans.