It's been almost three years since Motorola announced its intention to split its handset business from the rest of its operations, yet only now is the firm willing to put a date on the move – January 2011.

As cited by Bloomberg, CEO Greg Brown narrowed down the timeframe in a meeting with analysts.

Motorola also confirmed that current co-chief executive officer Sanjay Jha will head up Motorola Mobility – the name for the mobile and set top box division – while Motorola Solutions, which will handle the rest of the firm's business, will fall under the hand of Brown.

Split and grow?

"Right now we're focused on launching, listing and growing organically," Brown told analysts when questioned on whether Motorola's two entities will consider buying up rivals after the partition.

"Then we'll see how things come at us in 2011."

The spin off was originally pitched as a way to appease shareholders, letting those interested in investing in the company know exactly where their money was going, especially as the mobile division was losing a lot of money. 

However, with its handset sales on the up, it now seems Motorola Mobility could be the most valuable part. It's announced its intentions to launch six new Android handsets during 2011, as well as much rumoured Android tablet, dubbed the Motopad.

[source: Bloomberg]