Orange Envelopes | Small Business Optimized Marketing > By Design

A Wall Street Journal article this week detailed Motorola's continuing problems with their mobile phone division.

The article describes the strategic intent of the division's new co-chief executive to simplify design and cut costs. The good news is that Motorola finally recognizes their failure to acknowledge the importance of comprehensive design. The bad news is that the company displays no capacity to integrate thoughtful design or to create wondrous user experiences with their devices.

Motorola currently supports more than half a dozen different operating platforms for their phones. This means, of course, that if a user migrates from one Motorola phone to another, they must relearn how to user their phone. What button to push for voicemail. How to send a text message. How to view a website link contained within an e-mail.

Despite showing an ability to stumble across creative and popular physical design, e.g. the RAZR line, the company has shown no aptitude for leveraging a successful platform to other devices or capabilities. Their user interfaces are cumbersome, the user experience they deliver is mediocre, and their ability to replicate and extend true innovation is questionable.

The company's decision to pare their operating platforms to three makes sense, and their adoption of Google's Android operating system is potentially a wise move. However, Motorola's focus on the device itself, not the overall context of user experience dims the likelihood that Motorola will ever deliver any phone that inspires wonder, awe or excitement.