Motorola is working on their own OS? What? Back that up. Several blogs are putting forth the rumor that Motorola’s friendship with Google is waning and that the cellphone manufacturer has been quietly hiring Apple and Adobe engineers with the aim of developing their own platform OS to compete with Android. The thinking is that Google is “shooting itself win the foot” with fragmentation problems, manufacturer support issues, and market saturation of so many Android phones, you can’t tell one from the other. Can this rumor really be credible?
We don’t think so.

Asked to comment, Motorola did not deny the existence of the project but re-affirmed its interest in Android. “Motorola Mobility is committed to Android as an operating system,” a company spokesperson said via email.

Now, the fact that Motorola is hiring people from Apple and Adobe is interesting. It’s really easy to see some strange Frankenstein-esque OS that’s as elegant as the iPhone but can freakishly and natively play Flash. And it’s easy to see how there are so many different Android products in the market that it becomes really different to tell one from the other in terms of performance. But creating a new OS to go up against two very seasoned platforms with vast app catalogs is extremely risky. Particularly when Motorola has been doing quite well with products like the Droid and Xoom thanks to the Android Platform.

Motorola may also be thinking of the next generation OS, years down the road when everything is linked to cloud. Sure, that could be. And with Google’s CR46 project, HPs webOS, it seems that everyone has their heads in the clouds. So why not Motorola as well? But seriously, we don’t think Motorola is going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Not by a long shot.

[via Information Week]

14 COMMENTS

  2. If you follow Motoroal News. Motorola already says about a new OS Project long time ago; that’s OS called Azingo.

  3. Remember when OS Android got struggle since first time Google Phone “HTC G1”? Motorola successfull make OS Android grow from struggle; begin from Motorola Droid (6 November 2009). Motorola have long time experience in Open Source OS.

  6. No reason to take on such a challenge. My best guess is that Moto is staffing due to all the competition comming up with all the Tablets. To be the top dog they’ll have to stand out from the crowd so good programmers are the key. Samsung has their own Wiz overlay for their tablets available and Moto needs to catch up. There will also be 3D development needed for the comming year. Programmers are in high demand. It’s good to be a programmer now a days.

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