back to article Google revs Motorola innovation with Guy Kawasaki hire

Although its Android platform is now streaking up the charts courtesy of Samsung's success in the smartphone business, Google's own mobiles turn in consistently less-than-stellar performances. So the Chocolate Factory has hired former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki to try and breathe some life into the brand. Of course, …

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  1. jake Silver badge

    Yet another reason to shun the gootards.

    I was in attendance at the "better than Heroin" meeting.

    It's the reason I quit working for Apple; I was totally fucking disgusted by the response.

    1. DZ-Jay

      Re: Yet another reason to shun the gootards.

      Please enlighten me... what is that "Better than Heroin" thing that you talk about?

      1. jake Silver badge

        @DZ-Jay (was: Re: Yet another reason to shun the gootards.)

        In a marketing meeting early in the Macintosh's life, when we were discussing providing the hardware to schools for free and charging for software, Guy made a statement along the lines of "Let's get the kids hooked early ... it'll be better than heroin!"

        It's a well known quote ... but I can't find it anywhere online. I gave myself 5 minutes ... I can usually find this kind of thing in under three ... I wonder if this is an example of using TehIntranetTubes to re-write (or unwrite, in this case) history. Sad, if true, seeing as it was a very good prediction. I still can't believe how addicted iFad users are ...

  2. Lars Silver badge
    Flame

    Wow and more wow

    There is no wow with Motorola, Nokia, Microsoft and still less wow wow with Panasonic, Ericsson, Siemens. Still Huawei will probably do well. Suppose you should just concentrate on producing something worthwhile and deserve the wow. Perhaps the lack of wow in the very beginning just makes us (in the west) totally incapable of producing anything worth a wow in the future. Are we not like this all the time. If the best Nokia or RIM can achieve is a third place then why bother, at all, with such a total failure. Ahoy, board members, you are clearly putting your next year dividends at risk, and think about the stock to morrow . And we in the west think we are all about competition. Tail wagging the dog or something.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wow and more wow

      What platforms to have a "wow" factor then? I would say none of them do, all are mature platforms which do easily enough of what users expect of them.

      The "wow" was when the iPhone first appeared with capacitive touch and multitouch. It was the first time a touch screen device was nice to use after years of suffering clunky touch screened phones powered by Windows Mobile and Symbian/UIQ.

      Since then they've got better cameras, better screens and a million features you don't really need. But ultimately the wow factor has gone, just like buying a new laptop usually results in a very short lived "wow" as you marvel at its speed.

      A genuine "wow" from a smartphone would be a battery life of a week, 3G or 4G reception everywhere you go. But obviously that won't happen.

      1. Paul 135

        Re: Wow and more wow

        "A genuine "wow" from a smartphone would be a battery life of a week, 3G or 4G reception everywhere you go. But obviously that won't happen."

        The irony of your post is that Motorola has probably been closer to making this "wow" happen than any other manufacturer, with big batteries in slim devices with slim bezels (e.g. RAZR m/i) . Superior to any "wow" I've seen from any Google-designed Nexus. Motorola also co king in the top 2 spots in a recent US customer satisfaction survey.

        Unfortunately, the GooTards have taken over, and as this article reminds us, are destroying Motorola piece-by-piece with likely childish gimmicks. All Motorola needs a to do is to start releasing products globally again and stop the retreat back to US-only. (Still peeved off that the Photon Q didn't make it to Europe)

  3. Bob Vistakin
    Facepalm

    Rats, sinking ship, mountains of unsold iPhones...

    Think different

    1. toadwarrior

      Re: Rats, sinking ship, mountains of unsold iPhones...

      Can you back that up with a link that isn't some questionable blog full of bullshit?

      Secondly if you knew what you were talking about, he isn't jumping ship. He left in the 80's and has been a venture capitalist for ages. They only mention apple because people care about apple but no one cares about Motorola, especially now that google is killing it.

  4. DerekCurrie
    WTF?

    Innovation of WHAT exactly?

    Guy Kawasaki is what I call a 'marketing maven' (as opposed to the dime-a-dozen marketing morons of our current biznizz bozo age who parasitize humanity to the max). But what 'innovation' is he going to provide Motorola? New marketing strategies, no doubt! But Motorola/Google has gained nothing-at-all in tech innovation, which is their worst weakness.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    first, Google need to establish Android as the brand name behind Samsung's Galaxy phones/tablets. Next, advertise their phones as running Android (hopefully the stock version, I -for one- won't be buying Samsung phones due to their disinterest in updating the phones sold in those _other_ regions).

    So before trying to sell Motorola phones, reestablishing the Android brand name should come first. Apple really have done Samsung a great favor with that lawsuit!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's almost like Motorola Android phones have to suck so that Google's OEM customers don't get pissed off and get the anti-trust people involved.

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