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Morley quits Motorola and plans six weeks charity work


By Michael Garwood Motorola


UK and Ireland


general manager Andrew Morley has left the business after more than seven years. Morley, who left the US manufacturer


on


Morley will be volunteering at the Watford New Hope Trust homeless centre in a move he says will help him “put everything in perspective” before taking up a new role.


April 14,


joined Motorola in June 2007 as vice president of international marketing, based in Singapore, before returning to the UK. Motorola Mobility


general


manger of European operators Nick Muir is to take over the position on an interim basis until a successor is found. Morley insisted the decision


to leave was his own – and was “in no way” related to the impending sale of Motorola to Chinese firm Lenovo, which in February agreed to pay owners Google $1.7 billion for the firm.


Offered jobs


Prior to joining Motorola, Morley held roles as European marketing director at Ford (1992-2000),


director for BSkyB (2000-2005), chief commercial officer


marketing at


Morley: Decision was unrelated to Motorola’s impending sale


Cable & Wireless (2005-2006) and group marketing director at Harrods Group. He says he is keen to remain the


in telecoms


and has been offered a role as managing director at a “mobile-associated business” as


industry


well as a European marketing director position, but declined to reveal the identity of either. Morley said: “I’ve decided to leave Google Motorola. It’s been great working for a company like Google, but after


seven years it feels like the right time to do something new. Seven years at one place is quite a long time. I have a couple of opportunities and haven’t decided which one to take just yet.


No rush


“One is an MD position for a mobile-related business in the UK and the other is for a European marketing director position. I’m not going to rush in to anything.” For


the next six weeks


Volunteering “The day after I left I agreed to work in a homeless shelter for the next six weeks. I will work with them on everything, including volunteering, helping them


with their


marketing and look at their fundraising. “It’s completely voluntary and will help me put my feet back on the ground. It’s been on my mind for the past few months and something I want to do.” Morley


G handset, November last


added the Moto launched year,


in now


accounts for six per cent of the UK smartphone market, quoting figures from Gartner. The device was the biggest selling smartphone purchased through online retailer Amazon over the Christmas period.


BlackBerry exodus makes Azzurri launch new MDM platform to manage security and access


Azzurri Communications has launched a new mobile device management (MDM) platform that is being driven, in part, by an exodus of customers from BlackBerry.


ICON Mobile will manage security and access on devices for clients externally and cut down on the need to have an in-house IT team looking after the service, as part of a “continued focus” on mobile- centric applications. “Customers were saying to us our employees have got smartphones and tablets and we’re concerned about security risks and we want to consider a strategy to replace BlackBerry,” product manager mobility solutions Paul Fawcett,


told


Mobile News. “They were claiming that the old model of having the IT department maintain, manage and support MDM is not one that they wanted to keep going with.”


Personal usage


The solution is scalable for between 50-10,000 users and can be deployed across Android, iOS or Windows devices. It


will manage security across each handset, allowing for personal usage and the facility to tag calls as personal and private. Each handset will cost in the range of £6 to £7 per month to manage. On the BlackBerry exodus


Fawcett says it is being driven by a number of factors.


Fawcett: Customer concerns


“It seems to be a trend that is accelerating in the first quarter of this year. People are moving away from BlackBerry – not lock, stock and barrel yet, but when they’ve got new users


with new requirements they’re not giving them BlackBerrys, they’re giving


them other


devices. “It’s a combination of the


later generation of BB devices not meeting users’ needs and the uncertainty around whether BB will carry


on


making devices. “Also, BB price points are significantly higher for the new devices than the older ones and a lot of organisations just aren’t happy with that sort of pricing.” Windows Phone overtook BlackBerry as the third big- gest OS this year, after its share plummeted from around 5.2 to 0.6 per cent, according to Gartner and IDC respectively.


Ex-Cycell directors OwnFone administration deal leaves former investors ‘£2.7m out of pocket’


MVNO and handset manufacturer Cycell has been purchased by its former directors in a pre-pack administration deal that has left investors out of pocket to the tune of £2.7 million. The company, which is best


known for launching the “world’s


first” mobile phone


aimed at infants in May last year – under its consumer OwnFone brand – went into administration on December 12.


A new company Ownfone Ltd called was registered


with Companies House with the two current Cycell directors,


Christopher Clark


and Thomas Sunderland, listed as its directors. Sunderland


confirmed to Ownfone: Limited company


Mobile News that Ownfone had


indeed purchased its


assets but refused to say what price the new holding company had paid. Sunderland said: “There was a shareholder dispute


which prevented Cycell from raising any


further capital


and that was the reason that the business entered administration. “It was a straight cashflow situation. We were fully aware that we needed to raise a further round but because of this dispute we were unable to do so. “We tried very hard to resolve this dispute but in the end we couldn’t, so we effectively ran out of time.”


Sunderland refused to go


into detail on the dispute but former Cycell chief executive Gordon Webber and former chief financial


officer Bill


Darley resigned, along with fellow Cycell director Gareth Jones, in September. None


were available for comment at the time of going to press. When asked if the original


investment – said to be around £2.7 million – had been lost, Sunderland simply “Yes.”


replied:


Around £300,000 of the £2.7 million came through investment consortium London Business Angels, which is involved in the new venture.


In addition to hardware,


largely focused on the senior and disabled market, Ownfone runs an


MVNO business


provided through Vodafone MVNA Cognatel.


It has a connection base of around 3,500 across a range of partnerships including Age UK and The World Wildlife Fund.


www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk


Get Connected buys premises to boost staff


Get Connected has bought new 1,000 sq ft premises in Blackwood, South Wales, and plans to more than double its telesales team to around 20 by August. The mobile retailer, which has 65 stores across South-west England and Wales, currently has eight telesales staff based at its head office in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. From next month, all telesales


staff will be relocated to the new, dedicated two-storey building 20 miles away in Blackwood, with managing director Damian Cole planning to more than double current numbers in three months to help drive new business. All admin and product despatch will remain in Abergavenny.


Savings The new building will also include a retail store on the ground floor, with Get Connected closing its other two outlets in the town – saving the firm around £25,000 a year in rent. Cole confirmed there will be no retail redundancies, with all staff and management making the switch.


He said: “Buying our own building and moving two stores under one roof saves us £25,000 in rent each year. It also gives us the ability to significantly expand our telesales team at a time when new flagship handsets will be much in demand, along with growing 4G network coverage.”


Cole: Doubling telesales team


Ingram Micro to hold six partner events


Ingram Micro Mobility is to hold a series of partner events in May, June and July for its “premier” handset resellers. The events are aimed at partners who spend at least £5,000 per month on handsets and accessories with the distributor, to update partners on the latest news


from tier-one vendors,


including product roadmaps. The seminars will also provide


hands-on demonstrations of the latest smartphones, tablets and accessories. The first seminar will


take


place in Worcester on May 1, with one in Manchester on May 22. Two more will take place at Heathrow and Doncaster on June 26 and July 3 respectively. Each is expected to attract 20 resellers. Ingram Micro Mobility will also host two seminars in partnership with BlackBerry on May 1 (Worcester) and June 26 (Heathrow) aimed at resellers who want an update on the manufacturer, including its latest software and hardware releases.


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