The announcement on Thursday of a partnership with Google's arch-rival Baidu, China's No. 1 search engine, and Motorola's promise of more search deals, follows Google's threat to exit China due to a cyber attack and censorship dispute.
Motorola also said it is providing an Android app store in China, that it will offer on its own phones and to rival handset makers who can obtain licenses to offer the store.
The moves should alleviate some investor concerns that the Google dispute would hurt the cellphone maker's turnaround effort, which is heavily dependent on Android and selling phones in the fast-growing Chinese cellphone market.
"It takes away the risk that Motorola's success in China is 100 percent tied to Google," said Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt who estimates that Motorola's share of the China mobile phone market has dropped in recent years to about 2 percent from 20 percent.
Christy Wyatt, Motorola's vice president for software and services, said that the company wanted to give consumers choices for search and had been working on providing alternatives for some time.
"In some cases we have either operator customers or individual consumers who are more comfortable with something different. In the case of Baidu its obviously a brand that's very well known in China," Wyatt said.
The executive also said Motorola already provides search options other than Google on Android phones. For example it offers Yahoo search for phones at Latin American provider America Movil.
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