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Motorola shutting down its Texas plant where they built Moto X

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 May 2014 3:21 User comments (9)

Motorola shutting down its Texas plant where they built Moto X

Motorola Mobility has announced that it will shut down its factory in Texas that was opened to build the Moto X smartphone last year.
The plant, at its peak, employed 3800 workers, but that figure is down to 700 now.

While the company had hoped to show that manufacturing could make its way back to the U.S., it appears the costs remained too high (or demand was too low) to keep the plant open. Motorola is said to have sold 900,000 Moto X in the last quarter, compared to 26 million iPhone 5S, and over 40 million Samsung smartphones.

The Moto X will continue to be built in China and Brazil, confirmed the company.

Motorola's mid-range but cheap devices, like the Moto E and Moto G, have huge followings in nations like India and Brazil, and will therefore not be built in the U.S., where shipping and labor costs would be too high.



Source:
WSJ

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9 user comments

12.6.2014 14:03

Go ahead Motorola! You P.O.S. F'ING SELLOUTS!

Go make that CRAP for other countries because you have no desire to appeal to the greatness of OUR COUNTRY.

I wish Moto would shrivel up and die! They've sucked the consumer market dry with GOD awful sub-standard products only to primarily cater to Brazil and India???? WTF is that?

Disgusting epitome of America biz.

22.6.2014 14:26

Originally posted by hearme0:
Go ahead Motorola! You P.O.S. F'ING SELLOUTS!

Go make that CRAP for other countries because you have no desire to appeal to the greatness of OUR COUNTRY.

I wish Moto would shrivel up and die! They've sucked the consumer market dry with GOD awful sub-standard products only to primarily cater to Brazil and India???? WTF is that?

Disgusting epitome of America biz.


32.6.2014 19:50
Chroma45
Inactive

:D Best reply ever.

43.6.2014 04:04

Less than a year.... what does this tell us?



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53.6.2014 04:42

Originally posted by Jemborg:
Less than a year.... what does this tell us?



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That not enough Moto X units were sold to exploit economies of scale that would enable production to remain in the US.

63.6.2014 11:18

Originally posted by Ripper:
Originally posted by Jemborg:
Less than a year.... what does this tell us?



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That not enough Moto X units were sold to exploit economies of scale that would enable production to remain in the US.
I'm really asking about the why.

I honestly don't know. Is it the death knell for manufacturing in the US or just a crap product? Is it wages or education? What part does globalisation play in this... was it just a final assembly plant... ?

74.6.2014 17:05
Chroma45
Inactive

They are all final assembly plants. Made in China is not MADE in China.

84.6.2014 17:55

look at the name in the picture over the doorway as that is not owned by google or motorola.

94.6.2014 19:44

Well Motorola is now owned by Lenovo (or will be whenever the deal goes through), but a quick Google search tells that this decision to close the factory was made prior to the sale.

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