Motorola to Outsource Low-to-middle-end Smartphones from Foxconn and Arima

Taipei, Dec. 16, 2011 (CENS)--To accelerate its foray into the segment for low and middle-end smartphones, Motorola has allegedly decided to completely outsource production of such products for sale in 2012, with two of its Taiwanese contract manufacturers, namely Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd. and Arima Communications Corp. to jointly enjoy a sizeable share of the business pie, according to industry sources.

The sources said that Foxconn will supply 70-80% of Motorola's Android-powered smartphones that are priced at US$300-350 and below and scheduled for launch in 2012, with Arima also contracted to produce five different such models.

While having gradually gained ground at home with higher-end, LTE (long term evolution)-enabled smartphones, the U.S.-based handset supplier has also aimed to penetrate overseas markets for low- and middle-end models, especially at a time when demand for budget-priced smartphones in emerging countries as China and Southern American countries has explosively surged. To seize the fast-growing business opportunities, the company has thus speeded up outsourcing production of such models to its contract manufacturers.

Worth mentioning is that Motorola's enhanced outsourcing is regarded as a ray of light to some of Taiwan's gloomed ODMs (original design manufacturers) of handsets, such as Arima, which has been struggling with business downturns for a time due mainly to rapidly waning market demand for feature phones.

Manufactured by Foxconn, XT615 and XT532 are among Motorola's low-to-middle-end smartphone models, both of which have just been retailed in Taiwan at comparatively economical prices.

XT532 features a 3.5-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera and 512M RAM storage and supports the dual-mode, dual-standby function that is necessarily needed in China, while XT615 is installed with Android 2.3 and built with a 4-inch WVGA touchscreen and 8-megapixel camera, with thickness of only 9.85mm.

In addition to moderately priced smartphone models, Motorola has also introduced its high-end Android phone, ME865, into Taiwan recently, which is incorporated with a 1GHz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch qHD screen, 8-megapixel camera and 1GB RAM memory module.