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| Posted: 28 Feb 2011 05:50 PM PST Motorola’s webtop application, which turns a smartphone into a desktop-like PC experience, will be coming to their entire high-end smartphone portfolio in the second half of this year, according to a presentation by CEO Sanjay Jha at a Morgan Stanley technology conference this week. Jha pointed out a number of acquisitions and license agreements that his company had made to enhance the overall software experience of their devices. Motorola recently acquired 3LM to augment Android’s enterprise security features, took over Zecter to supply integrated cloud storage and streaming services, and snagged Aloqa to deliver location-based content. “What we are looking to do is make small acquisitions which differentiate us in the market or create new opportunity,” said Jha. The handset maker’s new strategy is to transform into more of a software focused company and the webtop app will be a focal point going forward. Jha said, “We are trying to change the culture at Motorola to become a much more software-centric culture. One of the ways to do that is to bring entrepreneurial people with software skills into the company.” The webtop application has so far been exclusive to the Atrix 4G, but that was described as mainly a timing issue. Jha explained that there were optimizations in their webtop app that were specific to NVIDIA’s graphics processor inside the Tegra 2, but work had already begun to port webtop to other platforms like TI’s OMAP4 with its PowerVR GPU. Specific details about the future of the webtop application were scarce. Jha said that the full desktop Firefox browser would be upgraded to version 4 later this year, but he did not shed much light on other new features. I’d love to see Motorola support other apps and alternative browsers like Google’s Chrome, but we will have to wait and see what they add next. Webtop is still pretty limited in what it can do right now, but I think it has potential long term. The web-browsing performance is acceptable when compared to a netbook and later this year we will have faster quad-core preprocessors which should deliver the desktop performance that consumers want. What direction would you like to see Motorola take their webtop app next?
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| LG commits to offer at least a one-level upgrade for all Optimus smartphones Posted: 28 Feb 2011 07:57 AM PST How do you know if your brand new Android phone will ever be updated? Google continues to push out a major new version of Android every six months, but there is no way of telling (and no guarantee) that your device will ever receive a newer firmware than what it came with out of the box. History has shown us that the best selling Android phones are the most likely to get software updates while the flops get left behind. But how can a new user predict which models will sell well and thus get updates? LG is hoping to address this problem with a new pledge that should offer some peace of mind to their customers. I spoke with their global communications director earlier this month in Barcelona and he told me that LG is committed to software updates for their Android phones.
Carriers still control the software upgrades in the United States so this is not a flat-out guarantee, but it’s a step in the right direction and one we would hope that all handset makers would follow. If a company like LG is committed to providing at least one software upgrade (while other handset makers have a shaky past), then I would be more likely to suggest LG to my friends and family when they consider their next smartphone purchase. What do you think about LG’s promise? Would the offer of at least one software upgrade be enough to calm your fears that your new handset might be left behind? What type of commitment or guarantee do you think the carriers should offer when you sign a 2-year contract for a new smartphone?
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