Following the resignation of CEO Ed Zander, Motorola's chief technology officer, Padmasree Warrior has left the company, too. Reports claim that Motorola had been preparing for Warrior's departure since October. It's not entirely clear if she left for a new opportunity or if she was pushed out, or perhaps both. Still, Zander and Warrior appear to be getting most of the blame for Motorola's inability to produce a great follow-up to the RAZR--as the chief technologist and leader of thousands of other engineers at Motorola, Warrior deserves some blame.
However, no one else in the mobile industry came up with a better idea than the RAZR either, until this year's debut of the iPhone, a device that belongs in a whole different class and kicks off a whole new device era. What's being overlooked is Warrior's work with WiMAX and other wireless technologies and applications. If innovation is only about achieving higher sales than your last good idea, then there must be an awful lot of good ideas that don't get to see the light of day. -Dan
For more:
- check out this article in The Chicago Tribune