Motorola stands today as number 29 in the fortune 500. Motorola is a company that has changed the nature of its core business several times over its history, but it remains a business devoted to different forms of consumer electronics.
Motorola's equipment businesses include cellular telephone, two way radio, paging and data communications, personal communications, automotive, defense and space electronics, and computers. The Cellular Subscriber Sector (CSS) primarily designs, manufactures, distributes, markets, and services subscriber radio telephone equipment for cellular and personal communications networks, and the products of this division include mobile, personal, and wearable cellular telephones and related accessories. The Land Mobile Products Sector (LMPS) designs, manufactures, and sells analog and digital two way voice and data products and systems for a variety of worldwide applications.
Motorola was once the clear leader in this field, but Motorola is now battling Nokia and Ericsson for the top spot among mobile phone makers. Cellular products make up nearly 40 percent of Motorola's sales, while semiconductors account for 24 percent. The company also makes two way radios, pagers, computers, electronic components and systems, and networking peripherals. Motorola has operations in about 60 countries and gets about 45 percent of its sales from outside the United States. Motorola provides wireless telecom services in developing nations and owns about 20 percent of the Iridium communications satellite network. Falling analog phone sales, low chip prices, and a meltdown in its Asian markets have caused Motorola to slash jobs and consolidate some operations (Hoover's online).
The nature of the problem facing Motorola is indicated by a story in Business Week recently. For years, Motorola Inc. had supplied virtually all the wireless phones to Ameritech Corporation. When the time approached to switch to the new ...