it goes to show the famous creativity displayed by the MBA masses , once the RAZR had passed its day.

Worth reading and UNDERSTANDING you suits.

[money.cnn.com]

Goodbye Moto.

Aww, now I'll be forced to use an LG or something next time my contact renews, good thing I have another year with this KRZR.

They had one of the most popular phones in the US with the RAZR. What happened?

This worked out really well when they spun off Freescale Semiconductors in 2003-2004.

Wow, how quickly the mighty have fallen. It can't be 3-4 years ago that the world was clamoring for RAZRs, and now this....

PS I had a RAZR2 for Verizon and it was a great phone. Well built, great reception, and long battery life. Shame.

So the Motorola TAZR will not be released? Damn. I was looking forward to that one.

Maybe if they develop a decent os?

I do not know why people are surprised by this.
This is how Motorola has historically handled situations where the company was loosing money. Whether internal bad management or consumer sales were not profitable.

TV's -> sold to Zenith
Pager's -> broken up and sold off
Iridium -> Sold off
SemiConductors -> Spun off to FreeScale

The only tech they have held on to for life and limb was the radio and 2-way tech
From their early in car radios (i.e. Motor-rola from Motor and Victrola), to the 2 way radios during the war, and their trunking systems for military, police & public safety deployment.

This type of split should have happen a while ago, I am surprise it has taken so long.

@Geisrud: Well the OS really isn't their job. I know that Verizon puts their own OS on the phone and I'm guessing that goes for all the other carriers as well.

I am surprised that everyone in the world has a RAZR or KRZR or RAZR2 (even if everyone now hates their RAZR), and they still couldn't keep afloat.

@Daveed:
Actually, Verizon is the only carrier that goes to the extremes of writing their own OS for their phones*, which is a brilliant/dumbass move, depending on your perspective. Brilliant because it's one less thing to get in the way of their support staff, dumbass because no-one else uses BREW and their OS has a tendency to suck.

*The other carriers tend to add in extra software of their own, or tweak the manufacturer's software, but only Verizon throws it out entirely.

The StarTAC was a great little phone in its time! I loved mine. I was hoping that they'd bring back the form factor someday, updated with newer technology, as some kind of retro phone.

This is what you get when you trade R&D for short term profits for 10 years.

Should have invested in more engineering and better R&D...

HP is doing the same thing. It's a result of public ownership by shareholders who demand short term profits...we need to change this structure.

its like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the titanic. the ship is still going down.

Just like Mike Tyson, they will come back better and stronger than ever.

Oh, wait...

Too bad. From the heights of the Razr a few years ago to this.

My first "Car" phone was a Motorola hardwired handset with a red LED display. My first portable phone was a Motorola bag phone - looked like a small Dayrunner organizer which you unzipped a viola - a phone! That was followed up by my first truly portable phone. It was the Motorola that preceded the StarTac. I can't remember the name. It had the small flip down mouthpiece. The thing was still the size of block of cheese.

John Mayer here.

@Wilson: I like the title!

@92BuickLeSabre: Or like Mike Tyson did by his extraordinary acting in the movie "Black and White," reinvent themselves in an entirely new way.

Oh, wait... now that I remember the movie... uh.... never mind.

Hell No Moto!!!...
Now I have to switch those fuck3rs of SE...
I'm so down with this cuz my favorite cellphone of all times were Motorola... Just because it has the friendliest UI...

@Daveed- unfortunately the OS IS their job, even in Verizon's case. Verizon provides a list of requirements and some lookNfell, but moto engineers have to code it... and therein lies the problem. For all the other carries moto creates the OS from the ground up, to match their requirements. Moto UI spends most of their time trying to make carriers happy, instead of innovating.

From what I hear Nokia can tell most of the carriers to crew off, we know what were doing, just buy the phone.

Probably for the best - my aged V600 is acting like it wants to bite my ear off these days.

@mdnttoker:

Agreed. Moto has a long history of doing a good job of cost engineering and the occasional lucky break, but R&D has been a non-topic internally for years.

And yes, their Phone OS sucks, which is directly related to all of their problems in the cellphone market.

I jumped on the RAZR band-wagon and it's shelf life is almost up_ Heading over to the iPhone camp soon_ Sorry to see Moto Go Bye-Bye as that's all I've ever had were Moto's_ High end phones were always superior_

RIP-Moto!

I just came in here to say that Motorola made the World's greatest phone, the Startac.... And found someone else beat me to it.

I hear good things about Razors, but the Startacs were rock solid. I used one until a year ago, when some of the keys finally started going out. Every phone I've had since has felt like a toy without the old school (1980s) motorola ruggedization.

Aww so bad all of my cellphones have been Moto's, well i guess...Sony Ericsson here i go!.

@do_tell: everyone found out that RAZRs suck.

@JRock:
While the Star-Tac was a well engineered phone, just like the RAZR when compared to other phones in the market at the time, it was severely handicapped by its software and user interface.

Anyone else remember how much of a pain it was to use the "FCN" "STO" and "RCL" keys?

Fuck 'em. In electronics you either keep releasing better / cheaper products or you get left in the dust because all your competitors do so. That market reality is nothing new.

Besides, everyone morbidly likes to see the top guy get his ass kicked and fall from grace...with two black eyes and a smashed nose.

Goodbye Motophone. We hardly knew ye.

Waittaminute, that's not right.