Motorola starts local production of Xoom
Valor Econômico
Regardless of the tax incentives, Motorola Mobility began manufacturing its tablet, Xoom, in the interior of São Paulo. According to Sergio Buniac, General Manager of the company in Brazil, the production began about 10 days ago. The forecast is that the first pieces of equipment get to the stores in the next two weeks. The device is one of the main bets of the company in its process of recovery. After a reorganization that lasted nearly three years, Motorola announced, in January, its split into two companies: Motorola Solutions was responsible for the business of communication networks and with companies, while Motorola Mobility took over the activities related to mobile devices and TV decoders.
Launched in January, Xoom began being sold in the United States at the end of March for US$ 600 with Wi-Fi connection. In Brazil, the device will also be sold in the 3G version. According to Maurizio Angelone, VP and General Manager of Businesses and Mobile Products for Latin America, the country will be the first in the world to receive the model. "We will launch it in other countries in the coming weeks, but we believe it is important to bring it to Brazil first", said the Executive to Valor. Without a contract with telephone operators, Xoom will cost R$ 1.9 thousand (US$ 1.19 thousand) in the Wi-Fi Version and R$ 2.3 thousand (US$ 1.4 thousand) in the Wi-Fi and 3G Version. Yesterday, in São Paulo, the company also announced the launching of a Smartphone, the Atrix, in the country. The price of the device without a contract with carriers has not been disclosed by the company.
According to Giuseppe Marrara, Officer of Governmental Relations of the company, initially, Xoom will be manufactured in the country without any tax incentive. The decision was taken while the Government does not issue a policy of specific exemptions for the tablets. The Executive says he believes the announcement of the rules may occur in about one month. According to him, the proposal moves on fast because it has the political support of the Ministers of Communications, Paul Bernardo, of Science and Technology, Aloizio Mercadante, and of Development, Fernando Pimentel. The last barrier, according to Marrara, is the publication of the text by Federal Revenue.
On the relevance of Latin America and Brazil on the results of the company, the Indian Sanjay Jha, Chief Executive of Motorola, on his first visit to Brazil, said the region side-by-side with the United States and China on the list of priorities since 2008, when he took office. In 2010, Latin America represented 11% of the sales of the company. The main markets are Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Despite having the launching of new tablets among its priorities, Jha said he believes more in the success of the Smartphone market in the long term. "The profit margin in the tablets will get really close to that of PCs in less than five years [near 3%]. In smartphones, the people are willing to pay more for devices with more functions because they depend on them on a daily-basis", he says.