Some reports have emerged which suggest that Motorola is developing its own mobile operating system as a potential alternative to Google's Android platform. Such a move would give Motorola more independence and room for deeper differentiation in the increasingly competitive smartphone market.

The new Motorola platform is reportedly based on Web technologies, possibly like HP's competing webOS software environment. The story, which was reported by InformationWeek, cites an unnamed source who is said to be familiar with the matter. Motorola has declined to confirm whether it is developing a new platform and says that it is still committed to Android.

This is obviously rumor territory—it's not really clear yet if there is any substance behind the story. Although there aren't enough details to draw any meaningful conclusions, it's still a compelling notion. There is no question that Motorola is bringing in developers with specialized knowledge of Web technologies. One of Motorola's 2010 acquisitions was 280 North, a startup that created a sophisticated framework for building desktop-like Web applications.

Motorola is currently one of the leading Android hardware vendors. The company's Droid handsets are the closest thing to iconic products in the Android device lineup. If Motorola were to adopt its own platform, it would be viewed as a major vote of no confidence in Android's competitiveness. It seems more likely, however, that the company is working to build a better companion platform to use alongside Android on larger form-factor devices.

Motorola has been exploring some unusual paths to differentiation in order to increase its visibility in the over-saturated Android smartphone market. The company's recently released Atrix handset is compatible with a unique netbook dock which provides a more desktop-like computing experience that runs from the phone.

Although the concept is really intriguing, the execution was weak. The so-called WebTop environment that runs on the netbook shell is based on a pared-down version of GNOME and was too simplistic to be competitive with a conventional netbook. It's clear, however, that Motorola wants to be able to deliver a software experience that will span multiple form factors and screen sizes.

The company could potentially be using the rumored Web-oriented operating system for future iterations of the dock and other similar products, rather than using it to replace Android on handsets. The company might also be looking to produce a more competitive tablet software environment after experiencing frustration with some of the issues in Honeycomb that hampered the Xoom.