Motorola CEO predicts 'make everything mobile'

Motorola (NYSE:MOT) CEO Ed Zander stood up and gave a speech yesterday at the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show with a vision of all consumer electronics "going mobile". Um, Ok -- really? When I delved into the details of what he meant, some of what he said made sense while other pieces of the speech made little to no sense. Chalk it up to another executive "setting the future" for customers by possibly not understanding the customer in the first place.

Now, it's common knowledge that many companies create the marketplaces they sell and operate in and end up convincing customers to products and services where a pre-existing consumer need was either 1) not needed at all or 2) was untapped, but existed. Motorola wants to create that "everything mobile" future and then get customers into buying the vision it created.

As the saying goes, if the demand is lacking, create it. But customers are smarter than that, and can quickly weed out subpar offerings even with the almighty marketing glitz and spin that can occur when Harvard MBAs go crazy on the marketing train.

Zander is not that crazy -- some of his ideas about the potential for mobility in emerging countries (where wireless penetration is just starting to explode) are excellent sources of future revenue that should treat holders of MOT well if Motorola can execute. But, in established markets, I'm not sure "everything" will need to go mobile. If so, I'll be buying stock in battery companies -- as all these devices will need tons of portable power sources.