News has leaked recently that Google has employed the notorious “Apple-Turned-Android” man Guy Kawasaki to be an advisory in helping Google move forward with improving Motorola products. Just a few days ago reports emerged that Google was, in so many words, unhappy with Motorola products and described them as not being “wow” by Google standards. So instead of standing around and patting each other on the back about how well their other products are doing and leaving Motorola to reflect on their failures in the corner, they’re going to keep Motorola under their wing and flourish the branch with the help of Mr. Kawasaki.
I like that about Google. They don’t just give up on something simply because the product is not up to Google's standards. They decide they’re going to hone upon it and make it fit their standards.
Without actually seeing the pipeline of Motorola’s devices that Google had acquired, I can’t really say that I’ve seen much failure from Motorola in that aspect. However, in other aspects I can say that I haven’t seen much in Motorola for quite some time, but perhaps that’s attributed to the fact that the only good Motorola products seem to be released on Verizon.
In one article where I asked if there was ever a phone you wish you had purchased but didn’t, I mentioned that I wish I would have bought the Motorola Photon. The reason being was that the Photon was one of the better devices at Sprint at the time, but it was quickly forgotten when the Samsung Galaxy S II was released and soon after the unveiling of the iPhone 4 and 4S from Apple. If you were to take a poll of Sprint customers asking what they thought about the Motorola Photon, they’d probably shrug their shoulders and ask when it was going to be released. It was a decent device but easily forgotten. The Motorola Droid or Droid RAZR line, on the other hand, are things you can’t not have heard of in this industry. The marketing strategy and the progression of these devices over however many years has certainly brought a lot of attention. The term “Droid” is misused as describing all Androids almost as often as “iPod” is used to describe all mp3 players or “iPhone” is used to describe all smartphones. Clearly Motorola has done something right through the midst of all this (even though not all Droids are Motorola, the majority of them are). The main problem is that the best Motorola handsets are offered exclusively through Verizon and should have at least been offered through one other carrier, if not all of them. Did I mention I hate carrier exclusives?
The fact that Google is saying that they aren’t impressed by Motorola’s future products, as Alex so properly described in his article, makes it hard to stay as excited or interested in the rumored “X Phone” if the company behind it isn’t amused by it. However, I imagine by employing Kawasaki that development is still underway with the project and with his help the anticipated device will still be released, even if it’s not as soon as we had hoped. To be honest, I am perfectly okay with this. If a company doesn’t believe in a product, then it’s likely the consumers won’t either. I would much rather wait longer for a great device than to have a company rush out a disappointment that was so highly anticipated as being top notch. I hope hiring Kawasaki was the right move and with his help Google, and in turn the consumers, can be happy with the finished product line.
Readers, what are your thoughts on this? Do you think hiring Kawasaki was a smart move on Google’s part? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Images via PocketAndroid and AndroidAuthority
