29
May
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Motorola CEO: Moto X Phone Coming By October, Built In Texas, And It's The First In A New Product Line [Update: Possible Summer Release]

Posted by in Motorola, News

The conferences put on by AllThingsD tend to be a bit sedate - Walt Mossberg gets on stage with some Very Important People and picks their brain in front of a live audience. Not so with tonight's interview of Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside and Research & Development head Regina Dugan. At the D11 stage, Woodside let loose with a flurry of information about the company's plans for the remainder of the year, starting with the much-rumored X Phone. Yup, it's real, and according to the interview, the "hero device" will be released by October 2013.

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Woodside went on to say that the "Moto X" would be made in a Texas facility currently used to create Nokia phones, presumably through an OEM hardware partner.

04
Jan
2013-01-04_14h04_58

HTC's CEO Peter Chou Talks About The Company's 2013 Plans: Better Phones, And Better Advertising

Posted by in HTC, News

I miss you, HTC. My Evo was the first phone I ever truly loved, and between 2007 and 2010, as a company you did remarkably well for yourself. Then the Thunderbolt happened, and then Beats got involved and... Well, let's just say it hasn't been a great couple years. So, when I hear that your CEO, Peter Chou, is planning some bold new changes for 2013, I'm hopeful. Skeptical, but hopeful.

It hasn't been any secret that HTC hasn't been doing so hot. Its stock has plummeted (from a high of 661 TWD in February of last year down to 287 today), its market share is dwindling, and while it has promised to streamline its product portfolio, we're still getting bizarre mid-range devices that break way too many branding commandments.

02
Jun
ATT

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson Says Customers Can Expect To See A Move Toward Data-Only Cell Phone Plans In The Next Two Years

Posted by in AT&T, News

We've reported on AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson's ideas on "toll-free" data usage, but it looks like he's expecting another big shift in data plans - the availability of data-only cellphone plans.

Indicating that we could expect such plans to arrive within two years' time, Stephenson said that text messages and phone calls "would be considered just another form of data." So, instead of having limits on minutes, text messages, and data usage, all would be combined under a single counter.

Carriers such as AT&T make a good deal of their profits from calling and texting plans because they use such little data, but Stephenson believes that these data-only plans are necessary because of the growing prominence of apps such as Skype that replace the functionality of phone calls using data.

01
Jun
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AT&T Users Could See "Toll-Free" Data Plans In The Next 12 Months, Says CEO Randall Stephenson

Posted by in AT&T, News

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, speaking at the Sanford Bernstein Strategic Decisions conference, teased a possible solution for customers who feel beleaguered by tiered data, and who have been avoiding data-heavy services due to plan limitations.

Stephenson suggested that, as part of new "toll free" data plans, certain data-hungry services' traffic would be excluded from users' monthly data allotment, meaning that services like, for example, Netflix, could be used without eating up your entire data plan.

According to FierceWireless, Stephenson indicated that content providers have been suggesting this approach prior to today's talk:

"I think you'd be stunned if we weren't getting those phone calls.

08
May
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AT&T Is Working On Shared Data Plans, Finally Device Consolidation Might Be Possible

Posted by in AT&T, News

The CEO of AT&T's mobile business, Ralph de la Vega, told CNET in an interview that the company is working on family data plans that would give consumers one big pot of data that all devices could share. While minute plans have worked this way for years, since tiered data came along, customers have been waiting on a way to pool their data.

No details are available on how the plans will work, or how it will affect subsidized devices. It's also unclear whether or not devices like tablets would be entered into the mix. One of the biggest hang ups on selling network-enabled tablets (aside from the increased device price) is convincing customers to buy into yet another data plan.

10
Nov
revue

Logitech Ditching Google TV, CEO Calls Revue Launch “A Mistake Of Implementation Of A Gigantic Nature”

Posted by in News, Revue

Guerrino De Luca, CEO of Logitech, while speaking at the company’s Analyst and Investor Day yesterday, plainly delivered a statement that many of us could have seen coming, calling Logitech’s 2010 launch of the Revue set top box “a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature.” Further, De Luca made it clear that Logitech had “brought closure to the Logitech Revue saga,” and plans to let inventory run out this quarter, with no sequel in the works for the manufacturer’s first Google TV box.

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De Luca confided that “operational miscues in EMEA” cost the company over $100M, and ascribed much of Logitech’s headache to executing “a full scale launch with a beta product,” implying that Google TV, as a product, was not – and perhaps is not – established or complete enough to make a launch on the scale of the Revue reasonable.

30
Oct
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What I Learned About Sprint's Past And Current Data Problems As Well As Future Upgrade Plans After Reaching Out To CEO Dan Hesse

Posted by in 4G, News, Sprint
Last Updated: January 13th, 2012

Sprint has network problems. Major problems. And they've gotten a lot worse lately. Really, really bad. Not all areas are affected - and in fact some have improved already, but more and more areas are getting so bad that Sprint's 3G data is completely unusable there, especially since the introduction of the iPhone. Troubleshooting and update my phone's "profile" and PRL didn't help, as evident from the screenshot #2 you see below.

Earlier this week I contacted Sprint's customer service, followed by an email to an executive and CEO Dan Hesse himself (or whoever fields his emails). The former told me there was a tower outage in my area, and a fix was incoming the next day (as you've guessed nothing is fixed as of today, 5 days later).

02
Sep
googorola-logo

Eric Schmidt Says Motorola Purchase Was For "More Than Just Patents" - It Was Also For Their "Amazing Products"

Posted by in Motorola, News

During his time on-stage at the Salesforce.com Dreamforce conference, Eric Schmidt (Chairman and former CEO) of Google said that the company's purchase of Motorola is about more than just patents, as has broadly been claimed.

We did it for more than just patents. We actually believe that the Motorola team has some amazing products coming....We're excited to have the product line, to use the Motorola brand, the product architecture, the engineers. These guys invested the RAZR. We know them well because they're Google Apps users....[We like] having at least one area where we can do integrated hardware and software. [via]

Does it make sense for Google to enter the hardware industry?

28
Feb
Motorola-Atrix-Laptop-Dock

Motorola To Offer Webtop Accessories For More Phones, And Gingerbread Updates Are Coming

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, Motorola, News
Last Updated: February 4th, 2012

In an investor call today, Motorola's CEO Sanjay Jha revealed two interesting tidbits: first, that the ATRIX 4G's Webtop app and accessory are going to be made available for more Motorola devices in the future, and second, that Gingerbread updates for all of Motorola's high-end Android devices are in the works.

On the former, it may be hard for some to get excited about more Webtop action, as the ATRIX 4G's has been dubbed overpriced and "gimmicky." However, it's important to realize that if Moto plans on continuing to offer Webtop accessories and software, they will also continue improving them. Rather than letting the idea die with the ATRIX 4G, it seems likely that Motorola will work to make Webtop a viable and attractive choice for smartphone users, and that means the technology will have to evolve as time goes on.

16
Feb
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Sanjay Jha On Motorola XOOM Pricing: 3G Version Will Cost $799, WiFi-Only Model To Retail For $600

Posted by in Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Told you so - the price of the XOOM will indeed be significantly less than $1,200 (at least according to Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha). In fact, if you decide to take the WiFi-only route, the tablet will cost just $600 - half of the price Best Buy put up (and subsequently took down). 3G connectivity will come with a $199 premium (jacking the price up to $799), though it's worth noting that the XOOM's radio will see an LTE upgrade sometime down the road.

Of course, there's probably one question on your mind: "How does this look next to Apple's pricing?" Well the cost of the WiFi-only model actually compares favorably - a 32 GB WiFi iPad costs $599, so the two tablets will be neck-to-neck.

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