Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility LLC, marketed as Motorola, is an American consumer electronics manufacturer primarily producing smartphones and other mobile devices running Android. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Beijing-based Chinese technology giant Lenovo. Motorola is headquartered at Merchandise Mart in Chicago, Illinois.
Motorola Mobility was formed on January 4, 2011, after a split of the original Motorola into two separate companies, with Motorola Mobility assuming the company's consumer-oriented product lines, including its mobile phone business, as well as its cable modems and pay television set-top boxes. In May 2012, Google acquired Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion; the main intent of the purchase was to gain Motorola Mobility's patent portfolio, in order to protect other Android vendors from litigation. Shortly after the purchase, Google sold Motorola Mobility's cable modem and set-top box business to Arris Group, and products increasingly focused on entry-level smartphones. Under the ATAP division, Google also began development on Project Ara. In October 2014, Google sold Motorola Mobility for $2.91 billion to Lenovo, which excluded ATAP and most of the patents. Lenovo's existing smartphone division was subsumed by Motorola Mobility.
The company currently sells a range of smartphones, mainly consisting of the high-end Edge series, the Razr series of foldables, the Moto G series, as well as a number of other series and products depending on region. As of 2025, its current flagship device is the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra.
History
On January 4, 2011, Motorola, Inc. was split into two publicly traded companies; Motorola Solutions took on the company's enterprise-oriented business units, while the remaining mostly consumer divisions were taken on by Motorola Mobility. The previous Motorola had been a pioneer in the development of cellular phones. After the major success of RAZR V3, the company was unable to keep up and quickly lost market share to rivals such as Nokia and Samsung, leading to major financial losses that culminated in the company's split. Legally, the split was structured so that Motorola Inc. changed its name to Motorola Solutions and spun off Motorola Mobility as a new publicly traded company.2011–2012: Independent
Motorola Mobility originally consisted of the mobile devices business, which produced smartphones, mobile accessories including Bluetooth headphones, and the home business, which produced set-top boxes, end-to-end video solutions, cordless phones, and cable modems.In the run up to the company's formation, Motorola Defy, Droid Pro, Droid 2 and Bravo were among the handsets introduced. At the 2011 Consumer Electronic Show, Motorola Mobility introduced the Motorola Atrix 4G, Droid Bionic and Cliq 2 handsets, as well as the Motorola Xoom tablet. At Mobile World Congress the company also announced the Motorola Gleam flip phone and Motorola Pro for GSM networks. In Q1 2011, the company reported revenues of $3 billion and sales of 9.3 million mobile devices, including 4.1 million smartphones.
In June 2011, the company launched their third generation Droid, Droid 3. They also announced other products during this time including the Motorola Photon 4G and the Motorola Wilder feature phone.
On October 18, 2011, Motorola Mobility announced the Droid Razr smartphone, bringing back the Razr brand that had been very popular as the Razr V3 in the 2000s.
2012–2014: Google ownership
On August 15, 2011, American technology company Google announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, pending regulatory approval. Critics viewed Google as being a white knight, since Motorola Mobility had recently had a fifth straight quarter of losses. Google planned to operate Motorola Mobility as an independent company. In a post on the company's blog, Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page revealed that Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility was a strategic move to strengthen Google's patent portfolio. At the time, the company had 17,000 patents, with 7,500 patents pending. The expanded portfolio was to defend the viability of its Android operating system, which had been the subject of numerous patent infringement lawsuits between device vendors and other companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Oracle.On November 17, 2011, Motorola Mobility announced that its shareholders voted in favor of the company's acquisition by Google for $12.5 billion. The deal received regulatory approval from the United States Department of Justice and the European Union on February 13, 2012. The deal received subsequent approval from Chinese authorities and was completed on May 22, 2012. Alongside the completion of the acquisition, Motorola Mobility's CEO Sanjay Jha was replaced by Dennis Woodside, a former senior vice president at Google.
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 US.
On December 19, 2012, it was announced that Arris Group would purchase Motorola Mobility's cable modem and set-top box business for $2.35 billion in a cash-and-stock transaction.
In May 2013, Motorola Mobility opened a factory in Fort Worth, Texas, with the intent to assemble customized smartphones in the US. At its peak, the factory employed 3,800 workers. On April 9, 2014, following the departure of Woodside, lead product developer Rick Osterloh was named the new president of Motorola Mobility.
Under Google ownership, Motorola Mobility's market share would be boosted by a focus on high-quality entry-level smartphones, aimed primarily at emerging markets; in the first quarter of 2014, Motorola Mobility sold 6.5 million phones—led by strong sales of its low-end Moto G, especially in markets such as India, and in the United Kingdom—where the company accounted for 6% of smartphone sales sold in the quarter, up from nearly zero. These goals were compounded further by the May 2014 introduction of the Moto E—a low-end device aimed at first-time smartphone owners in emerging markets. In May 2014, Motorola Mobility announced that it would close its Fort Worth factory by the end of the year, citing the high costs of domestic manufacturing in combination with the weak sales of the Moto X and the company's increased emphasis on low-end devices and emerging markets.
2014–2019: Lenovo ownership
On January 29, 2014, Google announced it would, pending regulatory approval, sell Motorola Mobility to the Hong Kong based Chinese technology company Lenovo for US$2.91 billion in a cash-and-stock deal, seeing the sale of $750 million in Lenovo shares to Google. Google retained the Advanced Technologies & Projects unit, and all but 2000 of the company's patents. Lenovo had prominently disclosed its intent to enter the U.S. smartphone market, and had previously expressed interest in acquiring BlackBerry, but was reportedly blocked by the Canadian government due to national security concerns. The acquisition was completed on October 30, 2014. The company remained headquartered in Chicago, and continued to use the Motorola brand, while Liu Jun — president of Lenovo's mobile device business, became the company's chairman.On January 26, 2015, owing to its new ownership, Motorola Mobility re-launched its product line in China with the local release of the second-generation Moto X, and an upcoming release of the Moto G LTE and Moto X Pro in time for the Chinese New Year.
Lenovo maintained a "hands-off" approach in regards to Motorola Mobility's product development. Head designer Jim Wicks explained that "Google had very little influence and Lenovo has been the same." The company continued to engage in practices it adopted under Google, such as the use of nearly "stock" Android, undercutting competitor's pricing while offering superior hardware, and placing a larger focus on direct-to-consumer selling of unlocked phones in the US market. On July 28, 2015, Motorola Mobility unveiled three new devices, and its first under Lenovo ownership—the third-generation Moto G, Moto X Play, and Moto X Style—in three separate events.
Integration with Lenovo
In August 2015, Lenovo announced that it would merge its existing smartphone division, including design, development, and manufacturing, into the Motorola Mobility unit. The announcement came in addition to a cut of 3,200 jobs across the entire company. As a result of the change, Motorola Mobility will be responsible for the development and production of its own "Moto" product line, as well as Lenovo's own "Vibe" range.In January 2016, Lenovo announced that the "Motorola" name would be further downplayed in public usage in favor of the "Moto" brand. Motorola Mobility later clarified that the "Motorola" brand will continue to be used in product packaging and through its brand licensees. The company said that "the Motorola legacy is near and dear to us as product designers, engineers and Motorola employees, and clearly it's important to many of you who have had long relationships with us. We plan to continue it under our parent company, Lenovo."
In response to claims by a Lenovo executive that only high-end devices would be produced under the "Moto" name, with low-end devices being amalgamated into Lenovo's existing "Vibe" brand, Motorola Mobility clarified its plans and explained that it would continue to release low-end products under the Moto brand, including the popular Moto G and Moto E lines. Motorola Mobility stated that there would be overlap between the Vibe and Moto lines in some price points and territories, but that both brands would have different "identities" and experiences. Moto devices would be positioned as "innovative" and "trendsetting" products, and Vibe would be a "mass-market challenger brand".
In November 2016, it was reported that Lenovo would be branding all its future smartphones under the brand "Moto by Lenovo". In March 2017, it was reported that Lenovo would continue to use the "Motorola" brand and logo, citing its recognition as a heritage cellphone brand. Furthermore, Aymar de Lencquesaing, Motorola Mobility's president at the time, stated that Lenovo planned to phase out its self-branded smartphones in favor of the Motorola brand.