Jump to content

Motorola Mobility: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
BattyBot (talk | contribs)
Bots
1,920,195 edits
m fixed CS1 errors: dates & General fixes using AWB (9832)
Line 162: Line 162:
{{Open Handset Alliance Members}}
{{Open Handset Alliance Members}}
{{Major information technology companies}}
{{Major information technology companies}}
*[http://androidbqbq.blogspot.in/2013/12/want-to-buy-new-phone-within-15k-wait.html Motorola's new Moto G]

[[Category:Motorola|*]]
[[Category:Motorola|*]]
[[Category:Companies based in Lake County, Illinois]]
[[Category:Companies based in Lake County, Illinois]]

Revision as of 07:11, 11 January 2014

Motorola – a Google Company
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryManufacturing
PredecessorMotorola, Inc.
FoundedJanuary 4, 2011
Headquarters
Libertyville, Illinois
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Dennis Woodside, Chairman and CEO
ProductsSmartphones & Tablets
Number of employees
4,259 (Q3 2013)[1]
ParentGoogle Inc.
Websitemotorola.com/us

Motorola Mobility LLC is an American telecommunications equipment corporation owned by Google Inc. and headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Libertyville, Illinois.

It was formerly Motorola's cellular phone division, which was called the Personal Communication Sector (PCS) prior to 2004. It pioneered the flip phone with the StarTAC in the mid-1990s. Motorola had a commanding lead in the analog cellphone market, but it was slow to embrace digital technology. By the turn of the 21st century, it produced another successful product, the (original) Razr, a very thin flip phone. Most recently, it has produced smartphones and tablets using Google's Android operating system. On January 4, 2011, the cellular division was spun off into a separate company as Motorola Mobility, while the remainder of the company was renamed Motorola Solutions, Inc.

On August 15, 2011, Google Inc. announced that it had agreed to acquire the company[2] for US$12.5 billion.[3] The acquisition included a sizeable portfolio of patents owned by Motorola.[4] On February 13, 2012, Google received final approval from the European Commissioner for Competition and the United States Department of Justice.[5] On May 19, 2012, the People's Republic of China also approved the merger for $12.5 billion, making it the last major trading commission to approve the merger. The merger was completed on May 22, 2012.[6] Google officially unveiled the new logo and new name for Motorola Mobility on June 26, 2013. Motorola Mobility is now simply known as "Motorola – a Google Company".[7]

History

Main article: Motorola

Motorola Mobility was formerly known as the Mobile Devices division of Motorola until it was spun off as a separate entity in January 2011. Motorola Mobility consists of the Mobile Devices business which produces smartphones and the Home business which produces set-top boxes, end-to-end video solutions, and cable modems.[8]

Resurgence

In 2002–2003, Motorola's Mobile Devices department reinvented itself. Three areas of significant improvement were user friendliness, design and brand. Motorola started paying more attention to the user experience, and models such as the v300, v400, and v600 (called the triplets) were among the devices that were easy to use. Besides ease of use, Motorola also stressed design and brand image. The result of the focus in these aspects led to the Razr V3.

Spinoff from Motorola

Former Motorola Mobility logo (2011–2013)

The division began trading as a separate independent company on January 4, 2011.[8]

Acquisition by Google

On August 15, 2011, 7 months after Motorola Mobility was spun off into an independent company, Google announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion,[9][10] subject to approval from regulators in the United States and Europe.

The acquisition viewed as Google being a white knight, since Motorola just had its fifth straight quarter of losses.[11] In a post on Google's Official Blog, Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page revealed that Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility is a strategic move to strengthen Google's patent portfolio, as Motorola Mobility has 17,000 patents with 7,500 more patents pending.[12][13]

Google's Android operating system has recently come under fire in an industry-wide patent battle,[14] in which Android manufacturers HTC, Motorola, and Samsung have been sued for alleged patent infringement,[2] by Microsoft, Oracle, and Apple.[15] The Motorola Mobility acquisition is considered a means of protecting the viability of Android. Google has stated that it will run Motorola as an independent company.[16] On November 17, 2011, Motorola announced that its shareholders voted in favor of the company's acquisition by Google Inc. for $12.5 billion, receiving approval from the United States Department of Justice and the EU on February 13, 2012.[5] The deal received subsequent approval from Chinese authorities and was completed on May 22, 2012.[17] Alongside the completion of the acquisition, Motorola Mobility's CEO Sanjay Jha was replaced by Dennis Woodside, a former Senior Vice President at Google.[18]

On August 13, 2012, Google announced that it would cut 4,000 employees and close one third of the company's locations, mostly outside the United States.[19]

Despite its close partnership and then takeover by Google, Motorola has still struggled to release Android 4.0 upgrades to many of its existing devices.[20]

On December 19, 2012, it was announced that ARRIS Group, Inc. and Motorola Mobility had entered into a definitive agreement under which ARRIS would acquire the Motorola Home business from Motorola Mobility, for $2.35 billion in a cash-and-stock transaction approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.[21] ARRIS took over development and manufacturing of Motorola's cable modems & set-top boxes as a result of the deal.

Products

Razr

In development since July 2003, Motorola released the Razr V3 in the third quarter of 2004.[22] Because of its striking appearance and thin profile, it was initially marketed as an exclusive fashion phone,[23] but within a year, its price was lowered and it was wildly successful, selling over 50 million units by July 2006.[24] Over the Razr four-year run, Motorola sold more than 130 million units, becoming the bestselling clamshell phone in the world.

Motorola released other phones based on the Razr design as part of the 4LTR line. These include the Pebl U6, Slvr L6, Slvr L7 (more expensive variant of Slvr L6), Razr V3c (CDMA), Razr V3i (with upgraded camera and appearance), V3x (supports 3G technology and has a 2-megapixel camera), Razr V3xx (supports 3.5G technology) and Razr maxx V6 (supports 3.5G technology and has a 2-megapixel camera) announced on July 2006.

The Razr series was marketed until July 2007, when the succeeding Motorola Razr2 series was released. Marketed as a more sleek and more stable design of the Razr, the Razr 2 included more features, improved telephone audio quality, and a touch sensitive external screen. The new models were the V8, the V9, and the V9m.[25] However, Razr2 sales were only half of the original in the same period.[26]

Because Motorola relied so long upon the Razr and its derivatives[27][28] and was slow to develop new products in the growing market for feature-rich touchscreen and 3G phones,[29] the Razr appeal declined while rival offerings like the LG Chocolate, BlackBerry, and iPhone captured consumer attention, leading Motorola to eventually drop behind Samsung and LG in market share for mobile phones.[30] Motorola's strategy of grabbing market share by selling tens of millions of low-cost Razrs cut into margins and resulted in heavy losses in the cellular division.[28][31]

Motorola capitalized on the Razr too long and it was also slow adopting 3G. While Nokia managed to retain its lead of the worldwide cellular market, Motorola was surpassed first by Samsung and then LG Electronics.[32][33] By 2007, without new cellphones that carriers wanted to offer, Motorola sold tens of millions of Razrs and their offshoots by slashing prices, causing margins to collapse in the process.[34]

In January 2007, then-CEO of Motorola Ed Zander rode a yellow bike onto the stage in Las Vegas for his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show.[35] Under Zander, the executive who was responsible for the successful Razr departed for Dell, while his successor failed to turn around the struggling mobile handset division.[33][failed verification]

Motorola continued to experience severe problems with its cellphone/handset division in the latter-2000s, recording a record $1.2 billion loss in Q4 2007.[36] Its global competitiveness continued to decline: from 18.4% market share in 2007, to 9.7% by 2008. By 2010 Motorola's global market share had dropped to seventh place, leading to speculation of bankruptcy of the company.[37] While Motorola's other businesses were thriving, the poor results from the Mobile Devices Unit as well as the 2008 financial crisis delayed the company plans to spinoff the mobile division.[38]

Android range

Sanjay Jha took the reins of Motorola's Mobile Devices Unit. Motorola's biggest customer Verizon Wireless needed a competing product since AT&T Mobility had an exclusive deal to carry the iPhone. After the Windows Mobile was delayed, Jha settled on Google Android as the operating system for all subsequent Motorola phones.[39][40]

Motorola shifted its Operating systems from their proprietary software to Google's Android operating system and in October 2009, Motorola announced a forthcoming smartphone named "Droid" that launched on the Verizon network on November 6, 2009.[41] "Droid" was a major success for Motorola Mobile Devices.[42] It received the "Time Gadget of the Year" award in 2009.[43] In 2010, Motorola launched "Droid X" and "Droid 2". Droid X was again a major success, which has helped Motorola to regain much of its market share in the United States.[44]

Atrix 4G, Droid Bionic, XOOM, and Droid RAZR

On January 5, 2011, Motorola Mobility announced that the Atrix 4G and the Droid Bionic were headed to AT&T and Verizon, respectively, with expected release dates in Q1 of 2011. The Atrix was released on February 22 as the world's first phone with both a Dual-Core Processor and 1 GB of RAM.[45][unreliable source?] The phone also had optional peripherals such as a Multimedia Dock and a Laptop Dock which launched a Webtop UI.[46][not specific enough to verify] On February 24, two days after the release of Atrix, the company released Motorola Xoom, the world's first Android 3.0 tablet,[47][unreliable source?] and followed it up shortly afterwards with an update to make it the world's first Android 3.1 tablet.[48]

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Motorola unveiled the Droid RAZR, the world's thinnest 4G LTE smartphone at that time at just 7.1 mm. The Droid Razr featured Kevlar backing, the same used in bulletproof vests, and a Gorilla Glass faceplate.

Though Jha managed to restore some of the lost luster to Motorola Mobility, through its last years as a division and then as an independent company, it still struggled against Samsung and Apple.[40] Even among Android manufacturers, Motorola had dropped behind Samsung, HTC, and LG in Q2 of 2011. This may have been attributed to the delay in releasing 4G LTE-capable devices, as well as setting the prices of its new products too high.[13]

Moto X

Main article: Moto X

In an August 2013 interview, Motorola Corporate VP of product management Lior Ron explained that the company will focus on the production of fewer products to focus on quality rather than quantity. Ron stated, "Our mandate from Google, from Larry, is really to innovate and take long-term bets. When you have that sort of mentality, it’s about quality and not quantity".[49]

Speaking at the D11 conference in Palos Verdes, California, in May 2013, Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside announced that a new mobile device will be built by his company at a 500,000 square-feet facility near Fort Worth, Texas, formerly used by Nokia. The facility will employ 2,000 people by August 2013 and the new phone, to be named "Moto X", will be available to the public in October 2013.[50] The Moto X will feature Google Now software, and an array of sensors and two microprocessors that will mean that users can “interact with [the phone] in very different ways than you can with other devices”. Media reports suggest that the phone will be able to activate functions preemptively based on an "awareness" of what the user is doing at any given moment.[51]

On July 3, 2013, Motorola released a full-page color advertisement in many prominent newspapers across the United States. The advertisement claimed that Motorola's next flagship phone will be "the first smartphone designed, engineered, and assembled in the United States".[52] On the same day that the advertisement was published, ABC News reported that customers will be able to choose the color of the phone, as well as add custom engravings and wallpaper at the time of purchase.[53]

In early July 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported that Motorola will spend nearly US$500 million on global advertising and marketing for the device. The amount is equivalent to half of Apple's total advertising budget for 2012.[54]

On August 1, 2013, Motorola Mobility unveiled the Moto X smartphone. At the launch, company representatives stated that the Moto X will be released in the United States, Canada, and Latin America starting in late August or early September 2013, rather than October.[55]

Moto G

Main article: Moto G

On November 13, 2013, Motorola Mobility unveiled its latest smartphone the Moto G, a relatively low-cost handset. The smartphone will be launched in several markets, including the UK, United States, France, Germany, and parts of Latin America and Asia. The Moto G will become available in the United States, unlocked, in January 2014 for a starting price of US$179. As the device is geared toward global markets, it will only be able to access 3G networks and will not be supported by 4G LTE. Unlike the Moto X, the Moto G will not be manufactured in the United States.[56]

At the time of the product launch, the device featured the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean operating system; however, Motorola's CEO guaranteed that an upgrade to KitKat (4.4), the latest version of the Android platform, would be released in January 2014. The upgrade was actually released on December 19, 2013.[57] The device also features a 4.5-inch (11.43-cm), 1280 x 720 HD display with a pixel density of 329 ppi, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor.[58]

Competitors

See also

References

  1. ^ "Google's Income Statement Information".
  2. ^ a b "Supercharging Android: Google to acquire Motorola". Blog. Google. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  3. ^ Bradshaw, Timothy ‘Tim’ (August 15, 2011). "Google buys Motorola mobile phone division". Financial Times. Retrieved August 15, 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |newspaper= (help)
  4. ^ Mclean, Michael ‘Mike’ (September 15, 2011), Google and Motorola — a match made in patent heaven?, EDN, retrieved October 4, 2011
  5. ^ a b O'Brien, Terrence (February 13, 2012). "US gives its blessing to Google's Moto Purchase". Engadget. Retrieved January 3, 2013. Cite error: The named reference "Terrence" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ "We've acquired Motorola Mobility". Blog. Google. 2012. Retrieved May 22, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  7. ^ "Goodbye Motorola Mobility, New Motorola Is A Google Company". Blog. GSM Insider. 2013. Retrieved June 26, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  8. ^ a b "Motorola Mobility Launches as Independent Company" (Press release). Motorola Mobility. January 4, 2011. Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  9. ^ Tsukayama, Hayley (August 15, 2011). "Google agrees to acquire Motorola Mobility". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  10. ^ "Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility" (Press release). Google. August 15, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  11. ^ Mick, Jason (May 2, 2012). "Motorola Bleeds More Cash as it Waits for Google to Save It". DailyTech. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  12. ^ Page, Larry (August 15, 2011). "Supercharging Android: Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility". Official Google Blog.
  13. ^ a b Cheng, Roger (August 15, 2011). "Motorola struggled before the Google deal". CNET. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  14. ^ "Google CEO: 'Anticompetitive' Apple, Microsoft forced Motorola deal". Apple Insider. August 15, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  15. ^ Richtel, Matt; Wortham, Jenna (August 21, 2011). "Motorola's Identity Crisis". New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  16. ^ "Google completes purchase of Motorola Mobility". BBC News. May 22, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  17. ^ D'Orazio, Dante (May 23, 2012), "Meet Motorola Mobility's new CEO", The Washington Post (originally published on The Verge), washingtonpost.com, retrieved May 23, 2012 {{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |newspaper= (help)
  18. ^ "Google Cutting 4,000 at Motorola Unit". ABC News. August 13, 2012. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  19. ^ Van Camp, Jeffrey (May 21, 2012). "Droid doesn't? Motorola still struggling to release Android 4.0 upgrades". Digital Trends. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  20. ^ "ARRIS To Acquire Motorola Home Business For $2.35 Billion In Cash And Stock" (Press release). Arris Group. December 19, 2012. Retrieved January 3, 2013.[dead link]
  21. ^ "Motorola embraces the ethos of cool". MSNBC. April 11, 2006. Retrieved December 22, 2006.
  22. ^ German, Kent (November 9, 2005). "Razr refresh: Motorola's fashion cell phones". CNet. Retrieved October 25, 2010.
  23. ^ "Motorola Ships 50 Millionth MotoRazr" (Press release). Motorola. July 18, 2006. Archived from the original on August 13, 2006. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  24. ^ Ziegler, Chris (May 15, 2007). "The Motorola Razr 2". Engadget Mobile. Retrieved June 23, 2007.
  25. ^ Nguyen, Vincent (January 23, 2008). "iPhone sales rocking and eating Razr's lunch at the same time". Phone mag. Archived from the original on December 30, 2008.
  26. ^ Crockett, Roger (January 24, 2010). "What Can Brown Do for Motorola?". BusinessWeek. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
  27. ^ a b Reardon, Marguerite (May 15, 2007). "Is Motorola's cell phone revamp enough?". News. CNET. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
  28. ^ Lappin, Joan (February 20, 2007). "Motorola's Zander Has Real Trouble Now". Forbes. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
  29. ^ "Motorola to Split Into Two After Phone Sales Slide (Update10)". Bloomberg. March 26, 2008. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  30. ^ Bartash, Jeffry (November 30, 2007). "Struggling Motorola back in a familiar position". MarketWatch. Retrieved January 3, 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  31. ^ Kawamoto, Dawn; Krazit, Tom (November 30, 2007). "Motorola's Zander out after Razr deemed one-hit wonder". CNet. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  32. ^ a b Burrows, Peter (November 16, 2009). "Moto Droid off to a Good Start. But Is It Good Enough?". BusinessWeek. Retrieved January 3, 2013. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  33. ^ Lappin, Joan (February 20, 2007). "Motorola's Zander Has Real Trouble Now". Forbes. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  34. ^ Ogg, Erica (January 8, 2007). "Motorola's mission: Make everything mobile". CNet. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  35. ^ "Motorola profit slides on mobile woes; shares hit 5-year low". MarketWatch. January 23, 2008. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  36. ^ "Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users Reached 1.6 billion Units in 2010; Smartphone Sales Grew 72 Percent in 2010" (Press release). Gartner. February 9, 2011. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  37. ^ Reardon, Margeurite (October 30, 2008). "Motorola's struggle for survival". CNet. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  38. ^ Hesseldahl, Arik (December 28, 2009). "An AT&T Mystery: Abrupt New York iPhone Shutdown". BusinessWeek. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  39. ^ a b Mui, Chanka (October 17, 2012). "Lessons From Sanjay Jha's Transformation Of Motorola". Forbes Contributor blog. Forbes. Retrieved January 3, 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  40. ^ Segan, Sascha (October 18, 2009). "Verizon Tips Oct. 30 for 'Droid' Phone". PC Magazine. Retrieved August 17, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  41. ^ Perez, Marin (June 11, 2010). "DROID does - but Motorola can't rest on its laurels". Know Your Cell. Dennis Publishing. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  42. ^ Grossman, Lev (December 8, 2009). "The Top 10 Everything of 2009 – Top 10 Gadgets". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved January 20, 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  43. ^ Dignan, Larry (October 28, 2010). "Motorola: Droid X Selling 'Extremely Well'". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved May 19, 2011.
  44. ^ Savov, Vlad. "Take a Look at the World's First Dual Core Phone". Entertainment Buddha. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  45. ^ "Atrix 4G with Laptop Dock". Motorola Mobility. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  46. ^ Kamal, Kal (April 29, 2011). "Meanwhile, Motorola launches world's first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet XOOM in Malaysia". Grey Review. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  47. ^ Bowman, Arthur (May 11, 2011). "Android 3.1 Honeycomb Update To Verizon Motorola XOOM Users First". BWOne. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  48. ^ Chris Velazco (August 1, 2013). "The New Motorola Is Focusing On "Very Few" Devices, And A Low-Cost Phone May Be Next". TechCrunch. AOL Inc. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  49. ^ Alexei Oreskovic (May 29, 2013). "Motorola's new 'Moto X' phone to be made in Texas". Yahoo! News. Archived from the original on July 12, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
  50. ^ Christopher Mims (May 30, 2013). "Google's new "Moto X" superphone will spy on you 24/7, and you'll like it". Quartz. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
  51. ^ Matt Clark (July 2, 2013). "Motorola's Moto X is the Smartphone 'You Can Design Yourself'". IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
  52. ^ Joanna Stern (July 3, 2013). "Moto X Details Revealed: Colors, Wallpapers, Engravings Will Be Customizable at U.S. Factory". ABC News. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
  53. ^ Christopher Mims (July 11, 2013). "Google is about to spend half of Apple's annual marketing budget promoting a single phone". Quartz. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
  54. ^ Dave Lee (August 1, 2013). "Moto X 'always listening' phone launched by Google's Motorola". BBC News. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  55. ^ "Motorola targets budget buyers with Moto G smartphone". BBC News. November 13, 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
  56. ^ David Beren (November 13, 2013). "Motorola recaps Moto G software, "guarantees" KitKat update by January". 9to5 Google Beyond Good & Evil. 9TO5. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
  57. ^ "Moto G". Motorola Mobility LLC. Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC. November 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Motorola_Mobility&oldid=590188635"