Droid's impressive showing has revived Motorola's hopes of its halcyon days coming back. To say that Android rescued Motorola from the brink would be an understatement of Android's contribution and Motorola's woes. In fact, Motorola was already past the brink and was helplessly waiting for the earth below to put it out of its misery when the Droid plucked it out of thin air.
Now, it is banking on Android to turn the tide in its favor. Spiros Nikolakopoulos, Motorola's VP for Asia Pacific, told Cnet Asia that his company plans to launch 20 to 30 Android-based smartphones in 2010. Interestingly, the company currently has no plans to launch a non-Android smartphone.
However, the company's faith in Android may not yield as much as it expects. Google's decision to confront the Chinese government could not have come at a worse time for Motorola. The mobile phone maker hopes to make serious inroads into the lucrative Chinese smartphone market with Android-based offerings. But Google's latest decision to postpone the China launch of two Android phones, including one from Motorola, has cast a gray cloud over its plans.
