Motorola's decision to split into two companies next year has put a spotlight on the company's handset and set-top box businesses, which will be run by co-CEO Sanjay Jha. But the company's networking unit has big aspirations too. Bruce Brda, Motorola's senior vice president and wireless networks general manager, summed it up in a single word: services.
Brda wants to grow Motorola's services business as a way to pump up the profile of the company's networks business, which will be paired with Motorola's Enterprise Mobility Solutions unit under the reorganization plan. Services already make up around one-third of the networking unit's $4 billion in annual sales. "There's room to grow it by a few percentage points," Brda said in an interview with BusinessWeek.
Motorola's networking business typically gets overshadowed by the larger players such as Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent. Brda has said in the past that Motorola's work in WiMAX will give it a leg up on the LTE competition, though he has also sought to temper expectations among networking vendors about how big a bonanza LTE will really be.
Nonetheless, Brda trumpeted Motorola's LTE position, predicting the company will soon win an LTE contract from China Mobile. "We are confident we'll get that," he said. "We are winning as many [LTE] deals as everyone else."
Brda said he expects to grow Motorola's services business' staff as the company expands, especially in the Americas. He also said Motorola will forge partnerships to expand the reach of its products and increase its R&D efficiency.
For more:
- see this BusinessWeek article
Related Articles:
Motorola will break in two in the first quarter of 2011
Motorola demos LTE-equipped Android tablet
Motorola: WiMAX experience paves LTE path
Motorola brings reality to LTE hype