Google to close Motorola smartphone factory in Texas

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27643474

by oori • 12 years ago

60 44 12 years ago

oori• 12 years ago

Google's Motorola Mobility has said it will close its Fort Worth, Texas factory after its Moto X smartphone failed to appeal to consumers.

The facility - which is the only smartphone factory in the US - opened in May of last year.

At its peak, the factory employed 3,800 people, although now only 700 workers remain.

pyre• 12 years ago

It's only been open a year and is already down to 700 workers from a peak of 3800?

higherpurpose• 12 years ago

Maybe most of the original ones were contractors.

gonzo2• 12 years ago

but Android is winning.

owenwil• 12 years ago

Is it Google closing this, or Lenovo, now that the sale has completed? It seems to me that the agenda has changed now that it's changed hands.

IBM• 12 years ago

The deal will close later this year according to the WSJ. It's still owned by Google.

the_ancient• 12 years ago

Which probably means Lenovo has no interest in buying the factory and Google will have no use for it after the sale

makomk• 12 years ago

Yeah, Lenovo aren't going to get the same symbolic benefit from manufacturing in the US as Google did.

ZeroGravitas• 12 years ago

It's not really a smartphone factory though is it? It just assembles the custom casings.

_wmd2• 12 years ago

Woah, talk about fickle..

    The future of manufacturing is going to be standard platforms with high
    customization around them. Common components and then customized wrappings,
    if you will. The reason is that consumers are pretty sophisticated and want
    their own thing but you can't build a phone for each and every person
    that's different. It's very difficult to achieve that…with a supply chain
    that's in Asia, even with modern jets. It has as much to do with time zones
    and culture and language. There's reasons why in a (creative)
    hyper-competitive industry you're going to end up with advanced
    manufacturing in the U.S. And this is a trend that we're beginning to see
    in many industries

— Eric Schmidt, 2013-08-02 http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2013/08/01...

psbp2• 12 years ago

You realize that Motorola has been sold to Lenovo, an asian company?

_wmd2• 12 years ago

Yes thank you, I was reminded by the 4th sentence of the article. If you continue reading all the way to the 5th sentence, you'll discover that deal has not yet been finalized.

fatjokes• 12 years ago

Yeah, then people didn't buy and proved him wrong.

gonzo2• 12 years ago

"Don't be evil."

beaner• 12 years ago

What is evil about this?

hosay1233• 12 years ago

Perhaps it would be better to ask an employee who 8 months ago may have started a family on the strength of a loud endorsement to move manufacturing back home. What's the real harm? Just a few empty promises, no laws broken and a mere 700 dashed spirits, but it's all worthwhile in pursuit of the dream - whatever it happens to be this quarter.

bobbles• 12 years ago

Maybe if they wanted the launch to be a success they should've opened it up to more than one country and more than one carrier

spinchange5• 12 years ago

It's been reported that Google senior management was never really committed to Motorola or the handset business[1]. The fact they took so long to launch a new flagship product (after first trying to use the IP arsenal against Apple while simultaneously winding down much of Motorola's other lines and businesses) and then selling the company mere months after the launch of it, seem to back this up circumstantially.

I will say this, The Moto X is a really solid product. The smart display, speech recognition capabilities and Moto Assist make it one of the nicest Android phones I've ever used for practical purposes. The Moto G and Moto E look to be really solid values as well.

The bad thing about this kind of corporate maneuvering here in the states is it makes the "American-made" angle they were playing for PR & political purposes seem manipulated and cynical. Maybe that's just not that important to most people though. I'm sure it was important to the people working there.

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/motorolas-super-powered-googl...

QuantumChaos• 12 years ago

Maybe that's just not that important to most people though.

It's not important to me: I'm satisfied that the theory of comparative advantage shows that free trade is good, and protectionism (even in the form of individuals preferring goods made in their own nation) is harmful to all countries. Presumably Google will put a positive spin on anything they do, and make the arguments that are best received by the public, not the most logical arguments.

I'm sure it was important to the people working there.

Switching from supplier A to supplier B will always be bad for supplier A. Does that mean we should never switch suppliers? Or maybe it means we should always switch supplies (since it's good for supplier B).

spinchange5• 12 years ago

I almost elaborated in my comment that for me personally it wasn't about protectionism, as much as a desire for a country that literally invented many high technology industries to simply regain some basic capacity and infrastructure to produce those goods again. I don't think it's incongruous to value free trade and the advantages of specialization and globalization but also like to see one's country able to produce more physical goods than just hamburgers or lattes.

pasbesoin2• 12 years ago

I have a Moto X. I wanted the 32 GB variety (for $50 more, it made sense aside from personally wanting the additional capacity).

Well, the store only had 16 GB models in "default" all-black and all-white configurations. So, I was sent to the Moto Store or whatever they call it.

Or I wasn't, per the cell phone company. Or I was, per the Store that subsequently sent me an email through which to order the phone I'd already paid for.

I'm leaving off many steps. The process was a big pain in the ass.

Except that Motorolla was/is on the door, in some ways it felt rather typical Google. Ostensibly, it should work. In practice, it's quirky, and when it's a problem, it's difficult to get someone to actually sort it out.

Ultimately, I had a clueful cell phone store manager walk through as much of it as he could. They didn't even call him back. The order did not then proceed as they told him it would (this included credit for a phone that I ordered ("you don't need to use the Moto Store / customization for a 32 GB all-black... It's on its way") that was never delivered -- but for which I was billed (yeah, our representative told you the wrong thing; if we do nothing further, you can consider the order cancelled)). But ultimately, after using the emailed "customize your order" link despite one further representative telling me not to, they sent one, and it works.

I didn't think this "U.S. 'manufacturing' (assembly)" was going to stick around. Didn't take too long to be proven right.

In this specific case, some genius decided to provide their cell phone stores with no 32 GB model stock (e.g. in all-black, at least) -- only 16 GB.

As others have pointed out, so many people "case" their phones that the color choices are significantly if not entirely moot -- from my perspective, at least.

It's a nice phone. They should have focused on actually making it easier and painless to get into people's hands.

"G" and "E" will in good part also succeed because you can just go into a store and fucking buy one. No one really wants this customization and wait for the package crap -- especially not when it starts to get this painful.

P.S. And when it means dealing with two independent companies' somewhat clueless support, as opposed to just one -- and they aren't even talking to each other (or, not well).

P.P.S. I really wanted this to work out, limited as it may be ("assembly"). And it's one reason I chose the X.

rdtsc2• 12 years ago

I got a Moto G and I really like it.

It was cheap enough that if it broke, I wouldn't be too upset. My rule is if I have to get insurance or if I am afraid of breaking it too much, then I can't afford it, and Moto G was in that range.

I've had it for about half a year. At no point in this time period, for example, have I thought "Gee I wish I had something more powerful". Granted this is the most powerful phone I've had, so maybe if I handled an iPhone I would be blown away, but so far so good, I am very happy with it.

dm22• 12 years ago

Motorola still sells great phones. Android doesn't have high system requirements and computing power has dramatically increased, become cheaper, and more energy efficient in the past few years, it's not too difficult to build a long-lasting and great phones anymore, which is bad for phone manufacturers because they rely on people purchasing phones frequently.

Even though I'm very tempted to purchase a Moto G or E I can't help but to stick to the Nexus phones though. If HTC or Motorola would just sell phones without custom software and pre-installed applications and would have a 3 year update policy, only then would I purchase from them.

I have no problems installing custom ROMs to keep a phone up-to-date but I really shouldn't have to.

scragg• 12 years ago

Moto X is a good phone. It was a huge disappointment when I heard about the price at launch. It could not compete on price with the Nexus line. Add that to the fact only AT&T customers get the moto customizer. Too bad, I live within a few miles of the factory.

drewnick• 12 years ago

You can customize the Moto X from any carrier now, the exclusive ATT deal ended last year.

jug6ernaut• 12 years ago

It was a huge disappointment when I heard about the price at launch. It could not compete on price with the Nexus line.

Sigh. The nexus line is sold AT COST. If you expected a retail phone to compete against a phone that is not trying to make any money you will always be disappointed.

jonathansizz• 12 years ago

Well, the Moto X and the Nexus 5 are now indeed the same price.

Motorola did have several major glitches with the Moto X launch: price too high, quality control issues at the assembly plant, mediocre camera software, customization limited to AT&T contracts.

By the time they'd fixed those problems, they'd missed the boat. I bought my Moto X a few weeks ago and it's the best phone I've ever seen, but all the buzz has moved elsewhere.

I hope for their sake that Motorola get the launch of the forthcoming X+1 right, because they make a very strong line of phones and I'd love to see them succeed.

gdewilde• 12 years ago

Technically users have a ton of influence on products but it doesn't seem very organized. Websites are usually limited to product information but it shouldn't be to hard to expand the info with production locations, political situation and wages. Profit distribution tells me a lot about a product. To support billionaires paying the lowest wages in the world could just be weird enough that one doesn't want to have any part in it.

I think a cool technical solution would be to increase the prices by an abuse scaled donation to a relevant aid organization. That way the end user doesn't have to investigate all the ins and outs of the geopolitical circus.

Comparing features is already hard enough.

Google to close Motorola smartphone factory in Texas

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