msmobiles.com interviews Michael Tatelman from Motorola
Transcript of the interview. [version 3 ; the text is still yet double checked if everything is right and if everything is included]
Below we present an interview with the highest possible manager at Motorola, who takes care of Motorolaīs Microsoft powered cell phones specifically. We would like to express big thanks to several nice ladies from Motorola, who helped us to arrange this interview despite the very little time available then. This interview was carried out on February 25, 2004 in Cannes, France, during 3GSM World Congress 2004 - where Motorola for the first time showed Motorola MPx100 and MPx phones.
The interview follows.
* * * * *
[msmobiles.com pulls out Orange SPV e200 from the pocket and puts it on the table and points at the e200]
msmobiles.com : your competition!
Michael Tatelman : not really.
msmobiles.com : [laughs] maybe after some time: not really
msmobiles.com : OK, so ... could you first introduce yourself?
Michael Tatelman : sure, my name is "Michael Tatelman", and I am a Vice President and General Manager of MotoPro Product Group in Motorola PCS.
msmobiles.com : now you decided to release 2 new Microsoft powered cell phones and maybe the first question that is important to many current users : what is with MPx200? ... because in the business model conceived by Microsoft the responsibilities are distributed between operator, vendor, and Microsoft ... and whatīsabout possibility to upgrade MPx200 to latest software, to Microsoft Smartphone 2003 version?
Michael Tatelman : so MPx200 will stay on the market place for a while, at least till the end of the year. Itīs still very powerful platform, particularly for the business user ... it doesnīt have camera obviously but thatīs actually the preferred capability in many enterprises and business organizations where cameras are not necessarily welcome at the workplace. So these devices tier in our portfolio - the MPx200 is kind of the entry model from the feature perspective, and the MPx100 is a more full-featured device and of course the MPx with the full keyboard and Wi-Fi.
msmobiles.com : you mentioned "enterprise" and from the point of view of Microsoft technologies, "enterprise" actually means ".NET"...
Michael Tatelman : yes
msmobiles.com : ... and in the MPx200 there is no .NET because there is older version of operating system, so would it be possible for you to provide upgrade to 2003 version, even without operators, because you are selling not only trough operators, you are selling also through distributors, for example in Germany.
Michael Tatelman : well, 2 answers to that: first of all the MPx200 is still a very powerful device when connected to e-mail if not to the .NET Compact Framework which then allows you to extend office applications, so surely from the personal information management perspective, connected to exchange 2003, synchronized with e-mail
msmobiles.com : ... itīs possible
Michael Tatelman : itīs possible, so in my MPx200 I do that... so from the operator perspecitve we wonīt be offering an upgrade to this device [Michael Tatelman points to his MPx200]
msmobiles.com : not at all?
Michael Tatelman : no!
msmobiles.com : big news! ... because there were some rumors that AT&T wireless is already preparing some upgrade to 2003, so you are denying it?
Michael Tatelman : I canīt really comment on that. There may be, hm, ... I canīt really comment on that.
msmobiles.com : OK [msmobiles.com sighs] OK so maybe we can take a look at the new phones. Could you tell me for example .... because ... the pain in the old Microsoft smartphones with Bluetooth was that there was very small number of profiles and limited possibilities, so could you mention what are Bluetooth features of these phones?
Michael Tatelman : right, so the MotoPro devices both come with the MotoPro innovation platform. The MotoPro innovation platform is Motorola delivery IP on top of Windows Mobile software. In case of both these phones full car kit and full handsfree capability from the Bluetooth perspective and they take advantage from the great current Bluetooth accessories that are available from Motorola including our top selling Bluetooth gear. So it has full hands free profile, we did the profile, not Microsoft.
msmobiles.com : what about Java? I know that for the other phones (not Microsoft powered) you are offering your own solution, your own Java solution ....
Michael Tatelman : hm [nods]
msmobiles.com : ... so are you putting Java here and what kind of Java is it?
Michael Tatelman : I am not ready to disclose vendors right now, but we will soon...
msmobiles.com : itīs not Motorolaīs?
Michael Tatelman : itīs not Motorola. Motorola doesnīt have Motorola brand Java solution, right, so we will have Java delivered with both of these device [he points to MPx100 and MPx] targeted at enabling operators of delivering brand services, right, and applications for the Java layer.
msmobiles.com : will it be contemporary MIDP 2 standard ?
Michael Tatelman : yes
msmobiles.com : not 1.0 ?
Michael Tatelman : no, no, the contemporary standard.
msmobiles.com : so both devices have Bluetooth?
Michael Tatelman : both devices have Bluetooth, both devices have megapixel cameras, both devices have expandable ...
msmobiles.com : I beg your pardon, "megapixel"?
Michael Tatelman : yes
msmobiles.com : you are telling this is megapixel?
Michael Tatelman : yes, this is megapixel camera with flash, both have extremely high resolution displays. The MPx100 the 176 by 220 ... the MPx has 320 by 240, Q-VGA, high resolutions
msmobiles.com : so the both have megapixel cameras?
Michael Tatelman : [nods]
msmobiles.com : ... ok, so my question was in combination with Java ... some offer such Bluetooth car, there is standard for Bluetooth API in Java, will your Java provide also Bluetooth APIs for midlets or will provide Java without Bluetooth support?
Michael Tatelman : I donīt know the answer to that.
msmobiles.com : so...
Michael Tatelman : so the additional features, first the MPx - it is first Motorola with Wi-Fi as well as ??? keypad ... so Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPRS and that is also the device with lot of memory - both 64 - and packed with power - Pocket PC obviously with touch screen capability
msmobiles.com : so I was using Pocket PC phones - a little bit difficult to use without touching touch screen
Michael Tatelman : they have touch screen
msmobiles.com : yes! but the problem is that Pocket PC phones are difficult to use with one hand, singlehandidly, so are you introducing some new interface layer so that the phone will be easy to use even without touching screen?
Michael Tatelman : no, there is some really great navigation capability with the soft keys, and the four-way nav, so particularly in...
msmobiles.com : ok, so to make a phone call, how do you do it with this?
Michael Tatelman : you just make a phone call, right [he selects soft keys of numbers on the touch screen of MPx] 4 4 7 .. and send
msmobiles.com : ????
Michael Tatelman : you touch your Bluetooth headset, you say "Sharon", you never have to open the phone,
msmobiles.com : I was just interviewing a guy from Sierra Wireless and they have their own layer of applications - so called "myVoq" so what Motorola is putting inside of this phone? What additional software Motroola is putting - its own or from partners?
Michael Tatelman : Both! We have a multimedia video applications, we have the Java layer, we have the Bluetooth profiles, we have simbus mobile mobility which give you hands-off from Wi-Fi to GPRS, Bluetooth. Both primary areas in which work in first release that are going forward. There is number of additional features that we are not giving out today, but you know, just suffice to say that we are working with a number of third parties and developing IP internally. Voice recognition will be another one, voice tags.
msmobiles.com : when are these phones [msmobiles.com points to MPx and MPx100] coming to the market?
Michael Tatelman : second half.
msmobiles.com : so in the third quarter they should be on the market?
Michael Tatelman : second half, I canīt tell you more than "second half".
msmobiles.com : OK
Michael Tatelman : We gonna announce specific operator deal and then we will give specific dates.
msmobiles.com : OK
Michael Tatelman : pretty exciting, right?
msmobiles.com : [laughs] yeah
Michael Tatelman : I canīt wait, personally I canīt wait to just get them out
msmobiles.com : the problem is that I have been to many trade shows and I have seen there very nice phones, for example certain SonyEricsson, and then I learned that this phone will never see the light ... never be released, so these are real phones?
Michael Tatelman : These are absolutely real phones - a lots is working - significantly before the launch dates so obviously ...
msmobiles.com : one issue which is interesting: what about radio interfaces, what radio interfaces ?
Michael Tatelman : so they [points to MPx and MPx100] both are tri-band; there are 2 versions of them 1900, 1800, 850 and for the European markets they are supporting 900.
msmobiles.com : oh, so itīs just like in Sierra Wireless [voq] but they are not quad-band?
Michael Tatelman : did you see their wireless form factor? come on!
[he laughs]
msmobiles.com : yes, I told them that itīs [the voq] big and no Bluetooth so what target market are YOU targeting? I guess professional users? Their [of Sierra Wireless] said that their market research indicated that enterprises donīt want camera and Bluetooth.
Michael Tatelman : well, certainly Bluetooth, in United States, in many countries, law mandates that it has Bluetooth for hands free operation, right, so Bluetooth is EXTREMELY [he stresses this word] important
msmobiles.com : in Europe cars are being sold with Bluetooth...
Michael Tatelman : absolutely, .... that would be bad market research [not to include Bluetooth]
msmobiles.com : there were some rumors, leak of 3 phones and 2 of these 3 are confirmed this is this [points at MPx] and this [points at MPx100] and whatīs about this MPx220?
Michael Tatelman : we are not ready to confirm any...
msmobiles.com : and it was also in Chinese press that "Motorola is about to manufacture in Taiwan 3 new phones MPx100 [points to MPx100 on the table], MPx300 [points to MPx on the table] and MPx220"
Michael Tatelman : as I said earlier be careful because you may see a lot of phones that may or may not make out to market
msmobiles.com : it was some prototype? [about MPx220]
Michael Tatelman : like I said, we are not gonna announce anything other than those 2 devices [points to MPx100 and MPx] today and the MPx200 rounds up the portfolio
msmobiles.com : OK, so from my point of view, the most important news are that you say, that there is no ROM upgrade for MPx200 to 2003
Michael Tatelman : No mass market upgrade. No consumer upgrade.
msmobiles.com: maybe for enterprises?
Michael Tatelman : perhaps
msmobiles.com: and you are saying that these 2 phones will hit markets....?
Michael Tatelman : in second half. The target market is mobile professional, business user,??? Microsoft Exchange program , e-mail for ordinary people and some revolutionary features - Wi-Fi at the MPx, the dual-hinge capability...
msmobiles.com: dual hinge [msmobiles.com is playing with MPx and opening it one time as clam shell phone and one time in notebook style - the dual hinge] is shocking
Michael Tatelman : yeah, shocking [laughs] yeah, we have a lot of patents on this
msmobiles.com: OK, so last question and then I will go. Maybe you have heard that currently e-mail push in Microsoft technologies is not satisfactory, itīs not the same as in RIM devices - the pushing is sent by SMS which is not acceptable in Europe for example. So are you playing to put some third-party e-mail push software. ....
Michael Tatelman : so, 2 comments, I think that Microsoftīs solution will evolve with the time, so the experience with the product solution sofar is actually a very good experience. You can set it to pull emails every 2 minutues, 4 minutes or 5 minutes and it works extremely well. With that said there are third party applications that will run on this device [points to MPx] - push e-mail solutions - in addition to...
msmobiles.com: you are not going to bundle them?
Michael Tatelman : Iīm not gonna bundle them at this time, we may in the future, but there ARE solutions that will work on this device. You have heard of "Good" - now there is a Pocket PC ...
msmobiles.com: in many countries people are buying RIM to get cheap push...
Michael Tatelman : there are compromises on RIM too, thereīs server environment, the operator has to pay fee on RIM, the Microsoft solution works (???) is secure,
security, provisioning. Not always the most fancy technology wins.
msmobiles.com: so generally you are satisfied with Microsoft?
Michael Tatelman : absolutely! More than satisfied. As a personal user of the...
msmobiles.com: I love it too! [points to his Orange SPV e200 smartphone]
Michael Tatelman : right, I love it. The thing I do the most with e-mail on my device is : I delete them. I have a lot of e-mails, I try to keep the most important ones, so I want people to know where I am... so it works very well for me.
msmobiles.com: OK, so anyway you are not targeting mass market, you are not targeting gaming and stuff?
Michael Tatelman : no! I mean, we call it "at work, on road, at home, and at play". (???) you are not always working, you have enhanced multimedia and gaming capabilities as well
msmobiles.com: joystick here [touches joystick of MPx100] is not good for games I think, because....
Michael Tatelman : thatīs not the final joystick
msmobiles.com: it is 4-way joystick, you need 8-way joystick to be optimal for games
Michael Tatelman : this is ..... six [touches joystick of MPx100, counts directions] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, it is eight! this way and this way [plays with joystick] ... I am pretty sure thatīs eight.
msmobiles.com: you cannot control some games if itīs not 8!
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