Motorola's Jha eyes comeback in Europe

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Motorola Inc is eyeing a big push back into the European market if its new Google phones sell well, the handset maker's Co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha said in an interview.

Motorola had pulled back from Europe after being battered badly by Nokia, so it surprised analysts on Thursday when it announced deals with France Telecom's Orange and Telefonica to distribute its first Google phone in Britain, France and Spain.

"If we're doing well financially, our next big focus will be Europe," Jha told Reuters. "Will we go and have a big marketing investment and big organizational investment? That will depend on how our financial performance is in the next two to three quarters next year."

Motorola is developing at least 20 phones based on Google Inc's Android software, banking on the partnership with the Internet search leader to turn around its loss-making phone business, which has been losing ground for years.

On Thursday, Motorola unveiled the first of these phones at the GigaOM conference in San Francisco, and said it will be called "Cliq" in the United States and "Dext" in the rest of the world. It did not give pricing details.

When asked why he decided on two names, Jha said it was based on market research conducted with U.S. carrier partner T-Mobile USA that showed different brands resonated in different countries. T-Mobile is owned by Deutsche Telekom.

"We're very hopeful for this device," said Jha. "It's too early for us to say what volumes will be but clearly we'll do everything possible to make sure that number is as large as can be."

In coming weeks, Motorola will introduce a second Android phone to be sold overseas and in the United States, Jha said. Analysts widely expect the U.S. partner to be market leader Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon and Vodafone.

Jha told Reuters he would have "multiple tens" of Android devices in 15 to 18 months, including phones with strong multimedia functions and devices for people who are mostly focused on messaging including emailing and text messaging.

Analysts have said that Motorola must make a splashy debut with these Android phones, or it may never regain its lost stature in the global cellphone market.

Thursday's announcement was seen as potentially a defining moment for Jha, 46, who had impressed investors since taking the helm of the mobile unit. Motorola shares are up more than 150 percent since March.

But Jha said that the Cliq was just a start for Motorola and not a "make-or-break" phone. While Jha's presentation drew polite clapping, the response was not as enthusiastic as the cheers that greeted the Pre phone unveiled by Palm Inc's in January at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Motorola shares ended the day up 1.5 percent, in line with the broader market, as investors reserved judgment before seeing how the new phone sells this holiday season.

Jha -- who was born in India and holds an engineering doctorate from Scotland's University of Strathclyde -- was formerly chief operating officer of wireless chip leader Qualcomm Inc, where he worked for 14 years in top engineering roles and as head of the chips business.

He is credited with playing a large part in building up Qualcomm's phone chip business, which now leads the industry.

Some executives and analysts have said they were impressed by his candor in acknowledging Motorola's problems since he took on the job. In October, after his three-month review of Motorola's operations, Jha said he saw low morale as an opportunity because employees recognized there were problems and were open to big changes.

Jha has since slashed employee ranks by about 30 percent with much of the cutting in the shrinking mobile devices business, where he canceled many products.

Asked if the grey hair starting to show in his black hair had been caused by pressure in his first year at Motorola, the executive said he was just getting older.

"We've had a yeoman's job to do and we've been engaged in it. It's been fun," he said.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Tiffany Wu, Gary Hill)