Motorola discloses Backflip to compete with Apple iPhone, but Google Nexus One buzz may overshadow
Motorola Inc., the biggest U.S. mobile-handset creator, added alternative gadget to its lineup based on Google Inc.’s Android software, directing to find a hit product
that opponents Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
The handset, called the Backflip, has a flip-out qwerty keyboard and a touch pad on the back of the display, Co-Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Jha said yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Backflip will be vacant in the Americas, Europe and Asia in the first quarter.
“As we rejuvenate our portfolio to focus on the smartphone section, where the majority of the growth and profitability is, I feel relatively comfortable that we’re headed in the right direction,” Jha believed in an interview. Motorola plans to introduce at least 20 innovative models this year, he believed.
Jha, 46, combined Motorola from chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. in 2008 to run the handset business, which has resisted to match the popularity of the iPhone and other smartphones.
Below his leadership, Motorola introduced the Droid and the Cliq last year, its first two handsets based on the Android operating system.
“The Droid has been a hit, but we believe its cheaper cousin, Cliq, has been a disappointment for T-Mobile,”Tero Kuittinen, an analyst atMKM PartnersinGreenwich, Connecticut, said this week in a report. The Nexus One “could push the Cliq into early retirement,” believed Kuittinen, who endorses vending Motorola shares.
