Smartphone ecosystem critical - Motorola
2012-03-12 22:36
Cape Town - An ecosystem to support smartphones is critical to building a brand and driving sales, a manufacturer has said.
"The ecosystem is phenomenally important to adding value to the smartphone device," Raed Hafez, Motorola managing director for the Middle East and Africa told News24.
Hafez conceded that the manufacturer had lost its way in terms of the development of smartphones, but that the renewed focus on smartphones running Google's Android operating system had given the firm a boost.
"We've had to work and focus on rebuilding that [country markets]. Eighteen months we had just started with MTN; now we're with all four operators in South Africa," said Hafez.
Android is the most common operating system running smartphones, but anti-virus firms have identified an increase in attacks aimed at the platform.
MotoCast
McAfee warned in 2011 that there was an increasing threat to phones running Android and Kaspersky Lab said that 70 000 malicious programs appear daily.
Google rejected the criticism of Android, saying that it was in the anti-virus companies' interest to spread fear.
"Yes, virus companies are playing on your fears to try to sell you bs protection software for Android, RIM and iOS. They are charlatans and scammers," wrote Chris DiBona, open source program manager for Google.
Android is expected to give Motorola an advantage in the smartphone market.
"Building the ecosystem is huge and that's why we have put all of our bets on Android because the Android ecosystem is extremely strong; it's open which means it allows a lot of partners to participate," said Hafez.
In addition to the Android ecosystem, Motorola had also debuted the MotoCast service which expands the memory of the smartphone to the size of a user's computers.
"We've introduced what we call a personal cloud with this feature of Motocast and what that does is extend your memory to an infinite capacity because now your phone can carry as much as your computers can carry and you no longer have to lug around your computers. You can pretty much have your content wherever you are," Hafez said.
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