Woah, talk about fickle..<p><pre><code> 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
</code></pre>
— Eric Schmidt, 2013-08-02
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2013/08/01/eric-schmidt-dennis-woodside-on-making-motox-in-us/2609785/" rel="nofollow">http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2013/08/01...</a>
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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/motorolas-super-powered-google-phone-2014-3" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/motorolas-super-powered-googl...</a>
Google's Motorola Mobility has said it will close its Fort Worth, Texas factory after its Moto X smartphone failed to appeal to consumers.<p>The facility - which is the only smartphone factory in the US - opened in May of last year.<p>At its peak, the factory employed 3,800 people, although now only 700 workers remain.
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.
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.<p>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.<p>Comparing features is already hard enough.