Smartphone manufacturer Motorola Mobility, which is owned by Google Inc, will become the first company to make smartphones in the United States, the Company’s Chief Executive said yesterday.
Motorola, which the internet giant purchased last year, confirmed that it would make a new Android-based phone called Moto X, and that it would be manufactured in a former Nokia factory near Fort Worth, Texas.
Motorola Mobility boss Dennis Woodside announced the move on stage at the 'D: All Things Digital' conference in southern California, claiming it would be the first smartphone ever to be manufactured in the US. The factory would employ around 2,000 people.
Many of the components will still come from factories in Asia, he said, but most of the assembly will take place in the US plant.
The phone will be the first to be designed by Motorola Mobility since Google took over the firm, and smartphone websites have been buzzing for months about what features it would include.
Woodside declined to reveal the phone, even though it was in his pocket, but said that it would be launched before October this year.
He said that it would feature two separate processors to improve battery life and would be “contextually aware” of what is going on around it.
Woodside said that manufacturing in the US, close to the company’s engineers, would give Motorola an advantage over rivals, all of whom make their phones mostly in the Far East. “You lose the ability to innovate. You lose the ability to make fast changes,” he said.
“We will take it back to the roots of innovation and build devices that have the potential to change people’s lives,” Woodside said.
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