Motorola talks up future Xoom and Atrix lines

Motorola has predicted that falling component costs will drive growth in the mobile market over the second half of 20111, bringing new devices and smaller tablets in particular.

Motorola Mobility chief executive Sanjay Jha said at a Morgan Stanley conference that the company could seek to build on the Motorola Xoom tablet with devices sporting smaller screens.

"A 7in tablet is seen as a much more fun device, a much more portable device, " he said.

If Motorola is indeed looking to release a 7in tablet, it would be likely to keep many of the hardware features and connection options of the Xoom.

Jha described the Xoom's $599 (£365) subsidised price tag as "pretty compelling", and suggested that future devices will keep many of the hardware features.

"I think video will continue to be important, I don't see too many things falling off the feature set," he said.

Jha also addressed the company's Atrix smartphone line. Much as the Xoom feature set will carry into other tablet models, Jha sees Atrix features such as the ability to dock with a monitor and keyboard becoming standard in other devices.

"You will see this across the entire portfolio of high-tier smartphones," Jha said of the Atrix docking capabilities.

"What we are trying to do is recognise that smartphones work well 80 per cent of the time, but sometimes you need a much bigger screen and you need the keyboard."