Motorola's Networks & Enterprise Division flexes mobile muscle

Motorola is a giant company involved in many businesses and 2006 sales of almost US$43 billion. It is one of the largest cellphone makers and heavily involved in wireless infrastructure and broadband services. Up to recently, the company was organizd into mobile handsets, consumer broadband services, enterprise mobility, and networks and government. In 2006, enterprise mobility and networks and government were merged into a new business unit, Motorola Networks & Enterprise, and the rest of the company is now organized into "Connected Home Solutions" and "Mobile Devices."

While in mobile computing circles the name "Motorola" still primarily conjures up images of wireless communication services and cellphones, the company also has a history in rugged mobile computers. Back in 1995, we reviewed the Motorola Forte CommPad and called it "one of the most outstanding examples of intelligent, functional design we've seen." Also in 1995, Motorola tested the waters with two avant-garde wireless handhelds in the Magic Cap-based Motorola Envoy and the Newton-based Marco, about which we had the following to say: Marco is essentially a Newton MessagePad 120 with a built in wireless radio modem. However expensive and bulky Marco is now, it's the real model for a personal digital assistant. When these things are half an inch thick, have backlit color screens, run for a week on a battery charge, come with an Internet email account, and cost less than $500, the market will explode just like cellular phones did. Given the emerging smartphone revolution, I guess we were right, and Motorola was on the right track.

Most recently, Motorola beefed up its enterprise mobility offerings by acquiring Symbol Technologies (completed in January of 2007), the company which had once acquired Telxon which, itself, had once owned Itronix, which is now part of General Dynamics. In the transaction, Symbol was positioned as the core of Motorola's enterprise mobility business within the US$13 billion Networks & Enterprise business unit (read about Motorola's Symbol acquisition).

Symbol's lineup greatly increases Motorola's existing arsenal of handheld ruggeds, such as the MW810 vehicle computer, the ML910 rugged notebook, and the HC700 Series of rugged handhelds.