• The New York Times, Friday, March 23, 2007 12:13 PM

Edward J. Zander, the chairman and CEO of Motorola, faces two somewhat contradictory tasks. In the short term, Motorola's best hope for a quick turnaround is coming up with a new breakout product like the slim Razr V3, which was introduced in 2004 and went on to become the cellphone industry's equivalent of "Star Wars." In the long run, several analysts suggest that Motorola needs to turn away from the hit-driven business model.

The Razr was largely the creation of Mike S. Zafirovski, who was brought in from General Electric in 2000 to revive Motorola's handset business. But after being passed over as CEO, Zafirovski left in 2005 to head Nortel Networks, which competes against Motorola.

Motorola's inability to compete at the low end of the market is worrisome to many analysts. Nokia has emphasized phone designs that reduce production costs, while relying on software as a way to add attractive features. And to a greater extent than Motorola, it has used economies of scale to push down production and distribution costs. Zander proposed similar moves for Motorola this week, but acknowledges that some changes will take time.

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