Motorola invests in social-networking

Motorola Inc. said its venture capital arm, Motorola Ventures, would invest in Tilefile Ltd., which has developed a social-media platform. Terms were not disclosed.
Leading handset companies such as Motorola clearly are moving beyond the hardware and software of handsets to become a more integral part of consumers’ lives. “Handset vendor” is losing its accuracy. And “social media”-the simple tag for the revenue-generating act of sharing video, pictures, music and links, much of it user-generated-appears destined to be a popular, sticky application.
The Tilefile platform combines video, photos and audio into a single, content-neutral format called a “tile,” according to the two companies. The tile combines the media in question and the users interacting with it; tiles can be sent to others, uploaded to the Internet, etc.
Tilefile is a private, venture capital-backed company based in Sydney, Australia. CEO David Bolliger said that his company’s ambition is to make its platform functional for television, PCs and handhelds-the proverbial “three screens.”
Motorola has made a slew of partnerships, acquisitions and investments in the past two years to propel itself forward, even while missteps in the handset business have derailed its trajectory as one of the most profitable innovators in the industry. But top handset vendors have moved swiftly to avoid being left behind as the power of computing and the Internet comes to bear on their efforts in cellular mobility. Motorola, apparently, has not let a string of abysmal quarters deter it from pursuing its “post-vendor” ambitions.
Rival Nokia Corp., for instance, has moved quickly into content and services, abhors the “handset vendor” tag and prefers “Internet company,” even while the bulk of its profits derive from low-cost handset sales in emerging markets. Nokia’s duality-excelling at traditional manufacturing and vending at the low end, while innovating at the high end and driving those innovations down its product line-is beginning to define the company.
How Motorola uses its myriad partnerships, acquisitions and investments, too, will also lend the company a new identity, presumably as it moves to a post-Razr platform in the coming years.