Tue 24 Sep 2002
Last Wednesday the topic lit up the news services… Motorola security breach allows their 2003 plans to be published to the internet (see Yahoo! and similar news stories). But as quickly as the uproar started, it subsided and all of the ‘leaks’ have been plugged and the sites that originally published the information have removed it, presumably at Motorola’s urging.
But what exactly to make of all of this?
Anyone who has been anywhere around the Product Planning function of a large consumer electronics company knows that they have a great propensity to create wild fantastic product roadmaps with frequent wild wholesale changes to major blocks of features. Pretty easy to move things around in a PowerPoint presentation! Models come in and out of vogue with each iteration and conversation. The phones described were a wide range of models with features packed everywhere like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, plugin cameras, and multiple Symbian-based smartphones. So the information that was seen was likely speculative, dated, and not necessarily the basis of the engineering work in progress, even if it did come from a Motorola source.
But how exactly did it find its way on to a message board in the first place?
* Motorola itself? Not exactly in the habit of giving any useful information, let alone mistakenly posting sensitive confidential loot.
* Corporate espionage? But if you did all of the work to steal the secrets, you don’t give it away to everyone else for free.
* A disgruntled employee (or ex-employee)? What would they expect this to do to wound their former master?
* A partner company or carrier employee? I doubt if complete plans are given to anyone outside Motorola, and certainly they are going to know that it will be obvious where the leak came from.
So, my current guess is that this is a red herring. A little positive press about all of the wonderful inovations that are just around the corner from a company who’s stock has been in the dumpster for a while. Look at all of the wonderful things that will be shipping soon. And the best part is, the products don’t actually ever have to exist. Sometimes perception is reality, right?
