Motorola is to launch two Google Android smart-phones by the end of the year. This announcement would seem to be the last throw of the dice for Motorola’s struggling mobile phone division, but can it save the famous, innovative brand that brought us iconic handsets such as the StarTac and the RAZR?

Adopting the Android operating system is a sensible move for Motorola. It gives them access to a reliable, easy to use touchscreen operating system, and more importantly it also grants them access to a growing community of developers and customers.

Motorola has consistently struggled to produce a nice to use operating system.  Moving to Android means they instantly achieve a degree of parity with the other phone manufacturers launching Android devices whilst benefiting from a massive ongoing global project.  No need to try and reinvent the wheel and burn a lot of cash trying to catch up with the market.  Motorola can focus on producing a stylish and sexy piece of hardware, hopefully returning to the form that inspired them to break the mould with the RAZR back in 2003.

The community around Android will help in several ways.  The launch of App stores for the iPhone, Android and Blackberry in the last year has sparked a huge and rapidly growing new market.  Apps not only provide manufacturers, developers and operators with a nice additional revenue stream, they also drive demand for the devices that support them.  Apple recently celebrated the download of their billionth App which is incredible when you think that the iPhone represents less than 1% of the phones in the world.  Plenty of room for growth.

Android is strategically important for the mobile operators who don’t currently offer the iPhone. It is arguably the most directly comparable rival to the iPhone with a similar user experience, the aforementioned growing App market and the ‘cool(ish)’ image of Google backing the proposition.  The marketing campaigns behind the T-Mobile G1 and Vodafone HTC Magic demonstrate how the operators are pitching these phones as iPhone challengers, putting their own cash behind advertising campaigns rather than leaving the manufacturers to promote their own handsets.

Another benefit for the operators is that Android isn’t a proprietary operating system tied to one manufacturer such as Blackberry so the operators wont be held to ransom by the cost of the devices.  Motorola could tap into this demand and add a strong brand that the operators will welcome.  This of course has a downside in that Motorola won’t be able to charge a huge premium for their Android devices.

Adopting Android is obviously not enough to single-handedly save Motorola, but it would seem to be one of a number of things they can do to give them a chance of recovery.  It would enable Motorola to quickly tap into the growing touchscreen smart-phone market, to benefit from the growing hunger for Apps and to produce a device that supports the operator’s strategies.

All Motorola needs to do now is deliver a fantastic handset design that beats anything LG, Samsung and HTC can come up with (gulp)!

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