Motorola Buys Zecter to Enhance MotoBlur Experience on Smartphones

Motorola has purchased Zecter, a startup company with synchronization and streaming technologies for on-demand media consumption, it announced Dec. 22. Motorola officials plan to use the Zecter technology to enhance experiences with their mobile content, as well as with the MotoBlur user interface that Motorola includes on its smartphones.

MotoBlur streams and syncs information from various applications and Websites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, and posts them on a user's home screen for easy viewing. It also automatically backs up user data, so it can't be lost and, should the device go missing, it can be easily reinstated. It also includes a Battery Manager for customizing a phone's power consumption.

Motorola said that it will integrate Zecter's wireless syncing, desktop integration, video transcoding and thin-file retrieving technologies across all of its devices and MotoBlur offerings, which currently include the Backflip, Flipout, Defy, Charm, Flipout and Devour.

"Consumers want seamless access to their content and media from wherever they are, while content providers want to ensure that content remains protected and secure," Christy Wyatt, corporate vice president of software and services at Motorola Mobility, said in a statement. "We believe that Zecter enables that seamless experience with the necessary security measures, and we are delighted to be able to work with this team."

Zecter currently offers two commercial products: ZumoDrive enables cloud-based content syncing, access and sharing, while ZumoCast enables personal media streaming on a device. Both store files in the cloud, enabling users to easily access their content, even when it's not stored locally.

Wyatt added that Zecter's team has expertise in offering solutions across multiple mobile platforms - though Motorola's current success has come from its focus on Google's Android. During its fiscal third quarter, the phone maker announced profits of $109 million, an enormous jump from the $12 million it earned a year earlier.

In November 2009, it launched the Motorola Droid on the Verizon Wireless network and has since watched sales climb. During the third quarter, Moto shipped 3.8 million smartphones, with the Droid X and Droid 2 topping its sales list. Despite such success, analysts at Jefferies and Co. have criticized its reliance on Android, saying that competitors such as HTC and Samsung can "tap into the same ecosystem."

"Zecter is an exciting addition to our MotoBlur service platform," said Wyatt, "and we welcome their highly skilled personnel to the Motorola Mobility team."

Motorola did not disclose the terms of its purchase.