back to article Hey, out-of-work BlackBerry bods: How about a job at Motorola?

Those 4,500 BlackBerry employees that CEO Thorsten Heins has promised to send packing may not be out of work for long – if Google has anything to say about it. Reuters reports that Motorola Canada – a branch of Google's Motorola Mobility division, which markets such Android devices as the recently released Moto X – has …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A door closes

    and a Window opens - no, hang on, that's that other mobe maker. Um. Nope. Sorry, got nothing.

    Like the vast majority of those unwanted Blackberry workers.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A door closes

      From one dying company to another?

      Motorola's mobile business has been going down the pan ever since The Borg purchased them...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Should have just gone with Android

    I still have the feeling that if Blackberry had simply moved their messaging services over to an Android platform and gone with Android on all their devices several years ago, that they would be a serious competitor to Samsung right now.

    That's a big missed opportunity.

    1. dogged

      Re: Should have just gone with Android

      Dammit. I had £5 on the first comment being that they should have gone with Android.

      Problem in the tech industry of any description? Roll out the Reg commentard's stock "Should have gone with Android" answer.

      Because giving everything to Google solves every problem in history, right?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Should have just gone with Android

      HTC can't compete with Samsung. Android is not a panacea. even with US spelling.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Should have just gone with Android

      "if Blackberry had simply moved their messaging services over to an Android platform and gone with Android on all their devices several years ago, that they would be a serious competitor to Samsung right now."

      No - they would instantly have lost all their corporate business by moving over to such an inherently insecure platform as Android. Also it is very hard to differentiate yourself in the Android market. This is why Nokia were wise to avoid it.

      The only 3rd party OS that might have made sense for Blackberry would have been Windows Phone - secure - and easy to manage - ideal for corporates - hence why it is gaining large wins in preference to Blackberry in enterprises like O2, Foxtons, Delta, etc.

  3. Timo

    turnabout is fair play

    Poaching employees is something that RIMM did to Motorola a while ago. Only now if Mot/Goog does it they won't call it poaching, as Mot will just be picking up talent on the street.

  4. poopypants

    Um...

    "...picking up talent on the street."

    Using an Amex card, I presume?

  5. Mikel

    Good guy Google

    It would be a shame for all that talent to go to waste just because the executives don't know what decade they're in.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not only in Waterloo

    I understand Google is also keen on picking up people escaping from Redmond…

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not only in Waterloo

      "I understand Google is also keen on picking up people escaping from Redmond…"

      Why? Code wise, Microsoft have done nothing of late, indeed nothing really since NT. There's been various lipstick put on the pig (or a halloween mask in the case of Windows 8), but the only core skills at Redmond are sticking fingers in ears whenever the customer's voice might otherwise be heard, politicking, and operating a slow and surly bureaucracy.

      Maybe Google do want a piece of that.

      1. monkeyfish

        Re: Not only in Waterloo

        Except that the core underbelly of windows has been getting consistanly faster and more stable in each release since vista (I realise vista was a dog, but they actually fixed it and made 8 about as fast as XP on the same hardware). It's not the fault of the engineers and coders that some **** of a CEO wants a giant eye sore of garish colours for a start menu, is it?

  7. kain preacher

    I wounder

    How many good people will try to jump ship to google ahead said said planned lay off? This could end up verry bad for the Berry.

  8. Hyper72

    Dragging feet..

    I wouldn't say they dragged their feet releasing BB10. I would challenge anyone to take an non-phone OS and adapt it for smartphones in just a few years. Even Google spent more than a year after the first iPhone to refactor their existing acquired Android phone OS from looking like a Blackberry to implementing the new smartphone concept put forward by Apple.

    The difference is that clever Google immediately saw that what Apple had was the future and started moving that way, where everybody else were scoffing at it. This is where RIM and Nokia failed, by not copying immediately but waiting until they had lost the market.

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