Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Motorola Malaysia Software to hike R&D spending
Reuters Cyberjaya, June 30
Motorola Inc's software unit in Malaysia will raise investment in research and development from 2005 as a recovery in technology spending gathers speed, an official said on Wednesday.
Motorola Malaysia Software Center, which develops software for mobile phones and telecommunications networks, will spend up to $100 million over the next two to three years in research, versus an average of $25 million a year since 1999.
"Business conditions are definitely holding up. We feel (technology spending) has stabilised right now and it's going up," managing director S Surya told Reuters in an interview.
The company will also increase the number of its engineers to 350 from 270 over the next four months, Surya said.
He said demand for mobile phones, a key market for Motorola software, was stabilising, though "that's not to say we're out of the woods".
Mobile phone makers suffered a slowdown in demand for phones and wireless equipment over the past couple of years, but demand has picked up thanks to new features such as colour screens and digital cameras.
Motorola Inc, once the world's top mobile phone maker but now number two, has capitalised on recent missteps by Finland's Nokia to claw back market share.
Illinois-based Motorola reported a tripling of profits in its fiscal first quarter ended April 3 and forecast second-quarter earnings that beat analysts' expectations.
Technology and software firms are emerging from a three-year slump. Research house International Data Corp. projected that information technology spending in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan would be at least $88 billion this year, up a tenth from 2003.
Motorola Malaysia Software operates out of the Multimedia Super Corridor, a 15-by-50 km (9-by-31 mile) zone stretching from capital Kuala Lumpur south to the airport.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.