Motorola Accuses RIM of Poaching Employees

It seems like Motorola is having a pretty hard time as of late. Not only are the feeling the pressure of increased competition in the mobile phone space, but now they are also having to deal with Research In Motion poaching key employees. Motorola claims that RIM has targeted 40 employees who can’t work for a competitor without revealing corporate / trade secrets. It’s expected that these employees are working on a new touch screen mobile device for RIM, code-named Thunder.

When it comes to mobile devices, Motorola has 2 lines, consumer and industrial. The consumer line tends to be non-touch screen based. But the industrial line, better known as Symbol, is a full blown ruggedized device running Windows Mobile/CE and is touch screen enabled. So, if RIM is poaching employees for use on their touch screen device, does that mean we can expect a RIM based Windows Mobile-based device?

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Apple Raised the Bar - Who’s Going to Top it?

Since Apple released the iPhone a year ago, many people have called for quicker updates to Windows Mobile along with more stylish devices and improved GUIs. Some people feel that nobody can match what Apple has done and the speed at which they can turn out updates. For a while, that looked to be true, but I’m starting to see a change. Device manufacturers have no been sitting back and letting Apple walk away with their customers.

Recent devices from HTC, like the Diamond and Touch Pro, are a clear indication that they can also do an eye-catching user interface along with breath-taking hardware. And HTC isn’t alone with hot new devices targeting the iPhone user. Samsung has gathered a lot of attention for their Instinct phone and the hot new Omnia Smartphone. If you haven’t seen the Omnia, you can check out the review over at SlashGear along with a great YouTube video showing off the amazing customized home screen and smooth screen rotation effects. I was also pretty impressed with the multiple on-screen keyboards. They’re a very welcome change from the standard Windows Mobile keyboard. There’s also some hot news about an upcoming device from Palm that could change their fortune for the better. Palm has been growing rather stale as of late, but the recently announced Treo 800 and the leaked Treo Pro look to change all that.

These new devices are just the start too. The next 6-8 months are going to be very interesting to watch and see what other manufacturers are going to release. Samsung, HTC, Palm - they are all releasing multiple hot new devices that compete with Apple’s iPhone. It’s clear that these companies are serious and are willing to do whatever it takes to keep and expand their market share. Apple has done a great job at showing the world they can make a nice phone and forcing everyone else to raise the bar. Competition is a great thing.