The Motorola move to integrate the set top box and handset divisions made me pause for a long while and think. The possibilities it opened up for the end customer seemed huge at first glance. And then I got to thinking about all the ways it’s going to be beneficial for Motorola.

Let’s start from the end of the chain. The end customer for the firm traditionally hasn’t been you and me. It’s the operators. That may be mobile operators like Verizon and Vodafone for the network and handset business. It may be cable and IPTV operators for the network and CPE business. There may be some commonality in the customers e.g. quad-play operators – those offering phone, internet, TV and mobile.

But with the handset division, the proposition is different. The focus is largely on driving pickup by the end consumer – you and me. This implies that the opportunity open to the Motorola - more than just bringing all the boxes under one roof (CPE and mobile) - is the integration of the services platform and the high growth which it entails.

It places the Company in a position to control the consumer experience both within and outside the home - delivery and storage of the entire range of consumer content – be it movies, pictures, music, videos; controlling the digital home. What's the next frontier - games?

The move makes further sense when you look at the valuations of set top box businesses. Over the last two years, most of the large STB businesses have been acquired at <1x revenue multiples.

And the rest of the industry is in line with catering to these trends. I've picked a few randomly from across the diaspora. Sling Media has launched solutions which can stream live and recorded TV content from the home entertainment unit to the mobile handset. Blockbuster has launched their own video download application for smartphones which will allow their content to be viewed across devices - at home and on the move. A smaller French player Wyplay is providing network connected devices which will enable users to store their content from across devices in one central place for viewing across the home. Yahoo has developed a widget engine for the internet and TV platform. What we now have is small applications which will scroll across the base of the TV screen for content snackers.

On the network end Envivio is launching solutions which enable transcoding on the PVR and once again enable multiple device viewing. Entone which has been providing integrated devices for the connected home has launched a partnership with VUDU to provide a cloud based video offering. Their target currently is telcos and service providers.

And that brings us to the actual question – is the focus for Motorola going to be provisioning the content and service platform directly to consumers, and will that create a conflict with their current customers, the operators? As of now they are purely the device providers but with the integrated solution, the Company is now in a position to interact directly with the customer even within the home. Will they become the acme of app stores (that may even have been Apple's strategy before the untimely demise of Apple TV)?

Or is the integrated proposition only an additional value-add of their offering – that they provide not only an STB within the home but a presence, a gateway, an integrated channel across all user contact points which can be utilised by operators, broadcasters, content providers, gaming providers...the list goes on.