Motorola Mobility is planning a return to cable set-top boxes. The company has been setting out its future product range at a customer meeting in Monaco, the first such event since the division that runs from mobile devices through to IP connectivity became a separate company at the beginning of the year.
Steve McCaffery, vice president, Motorola Home & Networks Mobility, EMEA, said the company was seeing traction in Eastern Europe and South America. “There was no money to be made in that part of the business. It was monopolised by low end product, but now we believe we have value to add.”
Motorola struggled to hold onto market share in Europe as new entrants arrived alongside the upgrade to digital. Instead the company turned its attention to IPTV, acquiring the Swedish Kreatel, and becoming the world’s leading supplier of IPTV set-tops.
Its credentials in DVB-C have been boosted by the 2008 purchase of the Chinese firm Dahua Digital.
More recently Motorola has turned its attention to software, purchasing the Swedish UI supplier Dreampark, following the January acquisition of DRM supplier Secure Media. “It’s not just hardware devices, but it’s the software that pulls it altogether,” said Motorola VP solutions marketing Buddy Snow. “If you look at the acquisitions we’ve made over the last 18 months it’s mostly software. It’s all very well to put these services on screen, but it’s what you can do with it. The key is to bridge what was once the idea of broadband tethered to the TV in the living room and take it mobile”.
Motorola is working on the use of companion devices, both within its own ranges and with third party suppliers such as Apple, when appropriate.
Among the new products on display in Monaco was a new wireless bridge, the VAP2400, capable of carry multiple streams of both SD and HD video content around the home. The company says it offers a high quality wireless alternative to wireline solutions such as Ethernet, PLC, MoCA, HPNA.
The Motorola VAP2400 is expected to be available for delivery globally from Q3 2011.
