Motorola Looking to Enter Tablet PC Market

By Dena Cassella Published January 7, 2010

Motorola is struggling to revamp its mobile devices business in the face of increasing loses. Motorola is enjoying some success with the new Android powered smartphones that it is offering on the market.

Motorola is looking to put more popular devices on the market and one of them will be an inside-out Android flip phone reports Reuters. The device would have the screen and keyboard on the outside of the device rather than the inside. The handset is also said to use a high-resolution LCD. Motorola is also considering making tablet devices that are larger than smartphones but offer similar performance.

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Motorola rival Nokia is already in the netbook market and Motorola could enter that market eventually, but the company is more focused on turning around its sagging mobile devices division. The next smartphone from Motorola is the Backflip set to hit the market in Q1 2010. The device has a full QWERTY keyboard that tilts back away from the screen and a track pad behind the screen.

Like all handsets today, how successful Motorola is in the market with the odd new Backflip will depending on how well the handset is received by consumers, particularly young consumers.

Analyst Avi Greengart said, “It’s [the Backflip] definitely different and in some ways different is good because it will stand out on the shelves. There’s no question. They’re innovating with this product in terms of hardware.”

While other carriers are landing Android-powered handsets by the droves, AT&T is still not offering Android devices to its customers. That could change with AT&T announcement that it would be carrying Motorola handsets reports Reuters. Odds are at least one of the new Motorola devices headed to AT&T will sport Android since Android is what is working best for Motorola right now.

Motorola will also be making a handset for Google to sell directly to customers as it is doing with the Nexus One. Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha told Reuters, “One of the subsequent devices Google will sell to their direct channel will be made by us. It’s an alternative channel to deliver devices to consumers.”

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