Google revs Motorola innovation with Guy Kawasaki hire
'Apple Fellow' to provide excitement lessons for staid mobes unit
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Although its Android platform is now streaking up the charts courtesy of Samsung's success in the smartphone business, Google's own mobiles turn in consistently less-than-stellar performances. So the Chocolate Factory has hired former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki to try and breathe some life into the brand.
Of course, Motorola's woes stretch back far further than its absorption into Mountain View's sticky embrace – and it's generally assumed that Google was more interested in Motorola's patent portfolio than actual products. However, since the acquisition, Motorola's weakness has proven a drag on Google's balance sheet.
As stated by Google CFO Patrick Pichette at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference last Thursday (February 28), the Motorola product pipeline acquired by Google lacked any “'wow' by Google standards.”
That pipeline, he said, had to be “drained” – which includes recent DROID-series launches (RAZR MAXX HD, RAZR M) ahead of the upcoming May “X Phone” launch.
As that pipeline drains, however, Google will have to stand on its own successes or failures, so to get punters excited at the prospect of owning a product that Sergey Brin in February told the Long Beach TED conference is “emasculating”, the company is turning to Kawasaki.
The once-Apple evangelist will work as an advisor to Google, focussing on product design, user interface, marketing and social media according to his Facebook post. Although a long time away from Apple, Androidauthority notes that he is one of a small handful of “Apple Fellows” (as is Steve Wozniak). Kawasaki has kicked off his stint with the creation of the Mobile Devices Google+ Community, http://www.androidauthority.com/guy-kawasaki-motorola-163284/ here.
El Reg will wait patiently for the “wow” factor to emerge. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Yet another reason to shun the gootards.
Please enlighten me... what is that "Better than Heroin" thing that you talk about?
Re: Wow and more wow
What platforms to have a "wow" factor then? I would say none of them do, all are mature platforms which do easily enough of what users expect of them.
The "wow" was when the iPhone first appeared with capacitive touch and multitouch. It was the first time a touch screen device was nice to use after years of suffering clunky touch screened phones powered by Windows Mobile and Symbian/UIQ.
Since then they've got better cameras, better screens and a million features you don't really need. But ultimately the wow factor has gone, just like buying a new laptop usually results in a very short lived "wow" as you marvel at its speed.
A genuine "wow" from a smartphone would be a battery life of a week, 3G or 4G reception everywhere you go. But obviously that won't happen.
Re: Rats, sinking ship, mountains of unsold iPhones...
Can you back that up with a link that isn't some questionable blog full of bullshit?
Secondly if you knew what you were talking about, he isn't jumping ship. He left in the 80's and has been a venture capitalist for ages. They only mention apple because people care about apple but no one cares about Motorola, especially now that google is killing it.
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