It looks like Motorola is joining the crowd - the crowd (including Verizon) that's running away from Qualcomm like Howard Hughes at a leper colony.
Moto is switching to Texas Instruments for their cell radios, primarily because of "business reasons." I'd bet dollars to donuts that one of those "business reasons" is that Qualcomm is looking like they're never going to get out of this patent fight hole they've dug themselves into.
We believe Motorola's decision was purely business as our technical contacts had suggested many Qualcomm-based [third-generation] WCDMA designs in the pipeline and a general preference amongst Motorola designers for Qualcomm, despite the higher pricing. Our checks reveal that Motorola found Qualcomm "hard to do business with," which we interpret as either too high-priced, or also having something to do with the royalty rates.
Read: Barron's via phone scoop
In other Motorola news, mocoNews is reporting that Moto is cutting their R&D budget by 15% to help with profitability. I like profit as much as the next guy, but given the reception Motorola technology has been getting lately, cutting R&D sounds a bit penny wise and pound stupid.
