It's no secret that Motorola is leaning heavily on Google's free mobile phone operating system. The company recently announced its first Android device, the CLIQ , and plans to sell it via T-Mobile starting later this year. Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha also noted that another Android device would be announced by Motorola "within weeks."

As if on cue, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry has said that Motorola is primed to launch a salvo of new Android handsets over the next six to 10 months, with a total of 10 hitting the street by July 2010. Citing industry sources, Chowdry notes that the devices will sell for prices ranging from $40 to $400. Is this possible? Sure. Is it probable? Mmm, doubtful.

Motorola no doubt took a solid first step in recapturing its former glory with the introduction of the CLIQ several weeks ago. The CLIQ is a social networking phone that brings with it a new evolution of the Android platform with the MOTOBLUR user interface. Motorola needs this device to be a hit. Big time. More than that, it needs the device that it is set to announce with Verizon to be an even bigger hit. If either or both of these phones fail to gain traction with consumers and flop, there probably won't be an independent Motorola handset division in 10 months' time.

Long story short: Motorola needs to launch not just one, but many successful handsets over the course of the next two quarters. Android can definitely help Motorola do that. The question is, can Motorola take advantage of all that Android offers and pull itself up out of the grave?

Anything is possible.

Source: InformationWeek