Motorola to up R&D headcount; launches colour mobiles

As part of its expansion plans in India, Motorola today said it will increase the headcount of its research and development division to 4,000.

"We have 3,500 engineers in both our Bangalore and Hyderabad divisions. In the next few years we will increase it to 4,000," Llyod Mathias, director (marketing) Motorola said.

The company's decision to increase the headcount in R&D was due to the fact that around 40% of its software comes from India.

Apart from engineering and software centres, the company also has a manufacturing facility at Sriperambudur in Tamil Nadu.

To expand its product portfolio in India, which is the fastest growing market in mobile phones, the company today launched a new range of colours in its Motopebl, Motorazr v3i and Motoslvr series.

The new coloured phones will come in the standard price range with minor variations and have india specific features like large address books, longer battery lives and higher
volume in ringtones.

The new range of colour phones have been introduced because mobile phones are moving away from being communication tools and are increasingly becoming consumer products. Today design can no longer be separated from marketing or technology, Jim Wicks, chief designer of Motorola, said.