Motorola Mobility is planning to make its webtop application, which connects a smart phone with a laptop dock to simulate a desktop experience, a common feature on most of its high-end devices by year-end, Chief Executive Sanjay Jha said Monday.
Motorola introduced the webtop functionality at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, when it unveiled the Atrix, a smart phone running Google’s Android operating system. The Atrix, which will go on sale at AT&T stores next week, nestles into a thin laptop dock with an 11.6-inch display and full keyboard. The phone powers the set-up, which gives the user full PC capabilities, including Web-based desktop applications.
At a conference hosted by Morgan Stanley Monday, Jha said that starting in June, “most of our high-tier performance phones will have the webtop capability.”
The newest smart phones’ processing power and memory are robust enough to run a desktop browser and other applications, while the set-up also provides for greater portability than a typical laptop, Jha said. He said the webtop application “could become quite an important innovation for us.”
Jha also said in his remarks that Motorola will have more tablets on the market by year-end. The company just released the Xoom, the first device that runs a verison of Android designed for tablets. Jha said the first few days have “been a good start for sales” but did not provide figures.
In addition, Jha said he expects tablet prices to fall this year as components get cheaper and more products hit the market, including devices with smaller displays around 7 inches. Apple is expected to introduce the second generation of the iPad tablet this week.
