Motorola looks beyond Android with rumored Azingo acquisition

Is Motorola laying the foundation for its own mobile OS?

Don't expect Motorola to ditch Android just yet, but Android and Me is reporting that a recent update to the LinkedIn profile of Azingo Senior Software Engineer Yogish Kulkami indicates that he now works at Motorola India "by acquisition".

Of course, the "by acquisition" part was removed shortly after this story started making the rounds.

Azingo makes an OS called Azingo Mobile 2.0 that is based on the Linux platform. The software isn't available on any major handsets just yet, but it does offer some of the right options -- namely a touchscreen interface and a WebKit-based browser.

This little slip could mean nothing, or it could mean that Motorola has quietly scooped up the relatively unknown company to develop its own OS.

Motorola did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.

Despite Motorola's strong partnership with Google, the move wouldn't be entirely surprising given comments recently made my Motrola CEO Sanjay Jha:

I've always felt that owning your OS is important, provided you have an ecosystem, you have all the services and you have an ability and the scale to execute on keeping that OS at the leading edge. And I continue to believe that at some point, if we have all of those attributes, that owning our own OS will be a very important thing.

Again, no official announcements have been made, but the acquisition would make sense -- either as the foundation for a new OS or, perhaps, as a component of MOTOBLUR.