Motorola Elusive with Smartphone Platform(s) Supported for 2010

We had a conversation with Motorola early Monday evening and asked representatives of the company about its smartphone OS plans, to which Motorola responded that "aside from feature phones," the company is focusing on "Android for the rest of 2010." When asked to clarify what that meant and if the firm was ruling out any other mobile operating systems like Windows Phone 7 Series, the company said that it was primarily targeting Android, but "isn't ruling out any possibilities" for "the end of the year."

Whether Motorola, once a Windows Mobile licensee, will return to Microsoft and support the Windows Phone platform once more is uncertain. Windows Phone 7 Series, according to Microsoft, should see a Holiday release, and "the end of the year" for Motorola could possibly tie in nicely with that, but the company's ambiguous answer doesn't offer much in terms of clarifications for its intentions in the mobile space.

Since late Fall 2009, Motorola had begun its re-emergence into the mobile space with the Motorola CLIQ, a device that captured the press' interest and was a positive start. At CTIA in the fall, the company had dedicated its entire boothbooth to Android. The company had followed-up with some highly coveted tablet form factor smartphones for China as well as the highly publicized Motorola Droid for Verizon Wireless. Since then, the Backflip, Devour, and CLIQ XT have been on the agenda, all of which run Google Android as the operating system with some receiving MOTO BLUR as a customized skin on top of Android.

At one point, the Motorola Droid was rumored to be made for Windows Mobile, but Motorola switched to Android after Microsoft had delayed its Windows Phone 7 Series OS--at that point the public knew it as Windows Mobile 7. A return to Windows Phone could be entirely possible given Microsoft's radical re-design of the platform to meet consumer needs and demands, but at this point it seems that Motorola is basking in its Android success--for good reason too; the company has delivered an excellent lineup of smartphones that has helped to build its reputation in the post-RAZR era.