Motorola
Motorola Inc. established as a multinational telecommunication firm at Schaumberg, Illinois in 1928. It also known as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. Two brothers Paul V. and Joseph E. Galvin buy the bankrupt Stewart Battery Company’s battery-eliminator plans and manufacturing machinery during an auction for only $750. They only set up their shop in a small part of a rented building. First offering that the company provides was wireless network equipment. For examples such as cellular transmission base stations and signal amplifiers. Motorola also popular because of broadcasting networks like set top boxes and digital video recorders and its home. They also produced High Definition (HD) televisions and various type of network equipment to broadcast videos, computer telephony.
They start with selling products like battery-eliminators, first hand held walkie talkie to first commercial cellular device. It held the whole empire almost 88 years. During first half of 2000’s, the company was on its peak but not long after that they lost their popularity. A lot of people thinks it was the reason why Motorola failure was because their hesitation to convert to android based phones. But the odyssey of Motorola and the up and down of the company is still an interesting things.
The two brothers changed the business name to Motorola as soon as they released the radios for cars. Motorola came from combining “motor” with “ola” which is from Victorola the popular end name for company during that time. The first cellular phone that was launched by Motorola was in 1973 after a lot of research and wide variety of products used. With the launched of their first cellular phone, Motorola dominate the industry until 1998 before it was overtaken by Nokia. Motorola Razr was release in early 2000. Approximately 120 million units in it series were sold. It was an instant hit with its unique style. But not long after that, it shows sudden decline. Motorola having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company divided into two parts.
The reason why the company failed is because the company lack of innovation. This could be the main reason on why Motorola failed their business. Motorola didn’t bring anything different for their products when their competitors such as Nokia and Samsung came out with unique product design. While, Apple and Blackberry had brought a game changing products but Motorola keep on defending Razr. Motorola also not turning to 3G. During that era, consumers really passionate with the 3G services. But they declined the 3G services so beacuse of that Motorola company stuck in its old services. And the lack of 3G services has impacted Motorola in a very huge way. Motorola also resist to make Android phones.
They choose to make their Android phones a bit late and the consequences were their business suffered. This is because Android had become a huge rage but Motorola delay the production of Android phones. Motorola company also choose to worked at their own speed. Other phone manufacturers in the market moves at fast speed compared to Motorola. It is more like a monopolist than a paranoid competitors. One more, Motorola company didn’t execute and didn’t grow. The customers and their wireless carrier had a bad term with Motorola which is because it does not deliver what it promised it would. They never built the “seamless mobility” lifestyle among their various product groups. Their unhappy stockholder sell their stock because the company didn’t grow.
What can we learn from the failure of Motorola is that it was a warning for tech companies. If the company failed to invest in marketing to ensure that they keep pace with product innovation, then it will lead the company to face end with their brand. Focus on quality over quantity. I know that its hard to make any product as great as it can or to continue improving and supporting it but continuing to impress customer even after they have bought your product is on another level of satisfaction. We also need to be transparent with our customers and always underpromise and overdeliver. Its not easy to get info from manufacturers about their plans for upgrading, but keeping customers waiting isn’t the right answer. Big lesson that we can learned is that on top of innovation and great product, they need to offer something that is resonates with customers at more emotional level.
