Motorola uses Symbol for Enterprise mobility push

Handset giant plans to make the most of Symbol's WLAN infrastructure expertise and European sales channels.

Motorola last week announced plans to buy enterprise wireless mobility vendor Symbol Technologies in a deal worth about $3.9bn. Symbol specialises in secure wireless LAN (WLAN) infrastructure systems, as well as barcode readers, RFID and other mobile terminals for retail and manufacturing environments. There is some minor product crossover in the companies’ ruggedised handheld PCs.

“Motorola wants to get into the enterprise mobility market where Symbol already has a good product portfolio and strong sales, particularly in the government sector,” said Symbol’s European marketing manager, Marco Landi. “For Symbol, Motorola brings technology and know-how, and is very cash-rich.”

Richard Webb, directing analyst for wireless at Infonetics Research, said the deal underlines Motorola’s intention to offer seamless, secure mobility solutions to its business customers. Fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) is also a big focus going forward, he added.

“This deal will give Motorola a great deal of leverage in the burgeoning enterprise wireless market, and particularly in retail, manufacturing, and logistics, all of which have been traditional strongholds of Symbol, based on its strength in data scanning and mobile computing,” Webb said in a research note.

Landi reassured Symbol’s clients that there would be no changes to support or maintenance contracts, and product innovation would continue. “It’s business as usual for Symbol’s customers,” he said.

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