For the first time, a smartphone will be manufactured in the United States, and Motorola is going to be the company to do it. Moto X, which will be made at a Fort Worth, Texas, plant employing some 2,000 people, will be released before the close of 2013, Motorola Mobility's CEO announced yesterday at the D11 tech conference. A caveat: South Korea and Taiwan will supply the OLED screen and processors (the lion's share of smartphones are currently manufactured in Asia), but 70% of the phone will be assembled in the US, CNN reports. AllThingsD has more on the Moto X's bells and whistles.
What Motorola gets out of it, per a statement picked up by ABC News:
- "There are several business advantages to having our Illinois and California-based designers and engineers much closer to our factory. For instance, we'll be able to iterate on design much faster, create a leaner supply chain, respond much more quickly to purchasing trends and demands, and deliver devices to people here much more quickly."
(More
Motorola stories.)