Motorola Mobility Makes Larger Push Into Corporate World

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) wants a crack at the BlackBerry crowd.

Motorola has over the past few months taken steps to make the company and its products friendlier to large corporations. The latest move: the recent formation of a new business unit designed to address the specific concerns of corporate chief information officers. The company sees it as both a marketing and support tool.

"It's all the stuff BlackBerry offers now," said Christy Wyatt, who runs software and services product management for Motorola.

Motorola's move underscores a broader recognition by handset manufacturers that creating consumer-specific devices isn't enough anymore, with many people preferring to use a single device to manage both their personal and business lives.

It is an integral part of Chief Executive Sanjay Jha's strategy for growth. Having split with Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI), Motorola Mobility is a much smaller company facing giants in the industry, which Jha has said pushes him to move more aggressively in addressing new opportunities. The company doesn't disclose the amount of revenue it generates from businesses.

Motorola isn't alone in its business path. While BlackBerrys tend to dominate corporate use, the Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone has made major strides getting into the workplace. In May, the head of AT&T's business unit, Ron Spears, said four out of every 10 iPhone subscribers were enterprise customers. A more diverse use of smartphones in the office will continue as the model of company-supplied devices -- typically BlackBerrys from Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM) -- gives way to employees using their personal smartphones.

That could provide an opening to Motorola's latest flagship smartphone, the Atrix, which features a unique laptop dock and was developed in cooperation with company executives. It followed the launch late last year of the BlackBerry-like Droid Pro for Verizon Wireless. Last month, it acquired a start-up to bulk up the security software in its smartphones, which run on Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android software.

"Our strategy primarily is to develop enterprise software so consumers can bring their smartphones into the enterprise," said Alain Mutricy, a Motorola executive in charge of portfolio and device management. "What we have to do is help out the (chief information officers)."

A spokesman for RIM couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Motorola's group focused on chief information officer issues will help address concerns including properly securing the devices, allocating the appropriate amount of access to the corporate IT system, and other managed services issues, Wyatt said. She added that it will serve as a resource and work in conjunction with the carriers, who are typically the ones who deal directly with business customers.

The development of the Atrix represented a change in direction for the company. The typically consumer-focused company used a information chief summit hosted by AT&T Inc. (T) in the summer to show off a prototype of the phone and laptop accessory to executives of several large corporations to get their feedback.

"I was very surprised how receptive they were to the feedback," said Veresh Sita, chief information officer of global real estate services provider Colliers International UK PLC (COL.LN), who was at the summit. "There was a true willingness to understand the use case of the product."

The information chiefs suggested adding the capability to use Citrix Systems Inc.'s (CTXS) software in the laptop dock, allowing users to remotely access their work desktop, a feature that was prominently touted during Atrix's launch.

Sita said he plans to use the Atrix in pilot programs throughout his company.

"They're all chomping at the bit," Michael Woodward, vice president of the mobile device portfolio for AT&T, said ahead of Atrix's launch.

AT&T declined to provide figures for how well the Atrix has sold, but a spokesman said the financial services industry and government organizations have expressed interest in the phone, and some companies have signed up to use the device.

While at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Motorola also announced an agreement to acquire Three Laws Mobility Inc., a start-up founded by former Google employees that focuses on enterprise security and software for mobile devices using the Android operating system. Wyatt said the start-up's software will find its way to phones in the first half, and Motorola is working to get it on other Android phones as well.

--By Roger Cheng, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2153; roger.cheng@dowjones.com

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