Next Motorola Phone Built in Texas, Called Moto X

Motorola head Dennis Woodside said during D11 on Wednesday that customers should expect a "handful" of new smartphones from the company this October.

According to Woodside, one of these new devices will be the Moto X which will be built in a 500,000-square-foot facility – formerly owned by Nokia – located outside Fort Worth, Texas. This will be the first smartphone manufactured here in the States although the SoC will be shipped in from Taiwan and the OLED screens from Korea. He said 70-percent of the phone will be assembled locally in the Texas plant which currently employs around 2,000 local workers.

Woodside assured the audience that Motorola will not access Google's Android code to get ahead of the competition. The search engine giant acquired Motorola Mobility just over a year ago, and one of the big fears stemming from Android partners has been that Motorola would take priority over all others. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open, the company said, and Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

Woodside, who claimed the phone was actually in his pocket but couldn't be shown on stage, said Moto X will be "loaded" with sensors that draw very little power and are tightly integrated into the phone. He offered some examples, saying that it will know when the user takes it out of a pocket, and will act differently when the user's car is traveling 60 miles per hour (for safer use).

During GTC 2013 back in March, one of the big requests from developers was for more sensors. Of course, you can't simply cram more hardware into a smartphone or tablet without consequences. Form factors will always be locked in their strict power envelopes no matter how battery technology improves – go over that limit and devices get too hot to use. A four to five inch screen has a thermal envelope ranging between 2W and 4W whereas a ten inch tablet ranges between 6W to 10W (the screen itself takes between 1W and 2W).

However Motorola's upcoming phone seems to address that need for additional sensors, but at what cost to other features? What kind of battery will Moto X need? "[The phone is] more contextually aware of what's going on around it. It allows you to interact with it in very different ways than you can with other devices," Woodside added. Interesting.

Woodside said the phone will be available this fall and priced below competing smartphones like the iPhone 5.

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  • hijaxhfx
    Not a fan of Motorola, but it is good for jobs!
    Reply
  • xero141
    Yeah 'Murica
    Reply
  • icraft
    I fully expect this phone to come with a free 72oz steak.
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    this is absolutely fantastic. let's debunk that apple myth saying that if apple products were made inside the states, each phone would cost ~$15,000 (not a typo)
    let's get that up to 100% and bring all that outsourcing back into the states. we were doing the best when we had all that manufacturing here. outsourcing sped things up, but it ruined a lot of things in the long run.
    Reply
  • ben850
    and will act differently when the user's car is traveling 60 miles per hour (for safer use)

    This is fine as long as it's an option, and not something that slaps your hand.
    Reply
  • vmem
    10902526 said:
    this is absolutely fantastic. let's debunk that apple myth saying that if apple products were made inside the states, each phone would cost ~$15,000 (not a typo)
    let's get that up to 100% and bring all that outsourcing back into the states. we were doing the best when we had all that manufacturing here. outsourcing sped things up, but it ruined a lot of things in the long run.

    ruining what? "outsourcing" was supposed to be a NATURAL part of a GLOBAL ECONOMY, it wasn't supposed to go only one way. now I am an american and I love my country, but if we didn't get so lazy and shitty at manufacturing basic products, we wouldn't have this issue with out-sourcing. the foundations of a global economy allows every country to make some money trading and doing what they do best, ultimately allowing the world to make everything faster and make everyone's life better.

    we need to ramp up education and skilled training. we're never gonna beat China and India etc by being cheaper, the only wan the american life-style can work is if we actually have the most skilled workforce in the world, and frankly, we don't, and it's getting worse, way worse, if you look at elementary level education nowadays...
    Reply
  • Grandmastersexsay
    It looks like Motorola is starting up a new expensive paper weight division.

    There is no way a US manufactured smartphone can be competitive.

    Here are three reasons why not:

    OSHA
    EPA
    IRS
    Reply
  • belardo
    So Grandmastersexsay is telling us NOT to buy USA products. Must buy from Chinese. And like China, we shouldn't have pollution controls which allows companies to contaminate our water supplies which then NEED to be detoxed (either WE the tax payer pays for it with taxes or the offending company is billed). Say, if I take a crap on your front yard and entrance to your home, its okay... right?
    OSHA, which helps improve safety standards for workers so they don't DIE or lose fingers and arms making your phone... unlike China where people who make our phones and tablets typically make a few hundred dollars a month working 60~80hrs a week?!
    So by YOUR standards, we should all work as slaves, damn the workers as long as the romeny's in the world gets to drink our blood from wine glasses.
    You have some mental problems.
    A strong middle class is what built America into the great country that it was... by all means, lets go back to the tax rate from the 50s. :) No middle class = weaker country.
    Reply