As it was reported in Wireless Week, Motorola announced that it had swung to a $12 Million profit over last year’s losses. Sales did fall from $7.48 Billion to $5.45 Billion. What does this all mean?

It means the company’s restructuring efforts to date have worked. It also means that the company has likely hit bottom, which is good for all concerned. Motorola’s DROID phone has been a big hit but like most things in wireless this success can be fleeting. Now Motorola needs to focus on 2010. Motorola’s focus needs to be on supporting application platforms that will be emerging in the wireless space.

I for one am glad to see the handset unit doing well. Motorola’s radio expertise was by far the best in the world; at least up the early 2000’s.

Motorola’s next step should be integrating enterprise services, media, and gaming into the handset. The company needs to be plugged into the cloud computing trend we see emerging. Motorola may even consider developing a line of dedicated devices; there is a market for niche devices.

Bottom line for smartphones – think processing power, think network integration, and think user functions. A single smartphone model does not need to be capable of doing everything but it ought to be able to access the various functions the core network has to offer. The point of Android is to provide an open platform form for applications. Motorola has the opportunity to leverage its new line of smartphones in this emerging cloud computing environment.