Motorola Cell Phones

Motorola is one of the oldest manufacturers of telecommunications equipment including mobile phones. The company was founded in 1928 but did not operate under the name Motorola until 1947. Before that, it was called Galvin Manufacturing Corporation after its founder Paul Galvin.

Motorola doesn't exist anymore since 2011. After several dramatically bad years, the company was split into Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility. The first now deals with, among other things, walkie-talkies. Motorola Mobility is responsible for the smartphones and was purchased by Google in 2011 and resold to Lenovo in 2014.

Motorola history

In 1984 Motorola released the first mobile phone for the American consumer market; the DynaTAC 8000X. The aircraft weighed almost a kilo and had a talk time of no more than half an hour. Nevertheless, the device appealed to the imagination and it appeared in many films. The DynaTAC saw a further development to the MicroTAC that was equipped with a cover for the keyboard. The flip phone was born.

The models that followed became smaller and thinner. The Razr series appealed to the imagination with its wafer-thin models and were extremely popular for a long time. 130 million copies would go over the counter. After the rise of the modern smartphone with its large touchscreen, the popularity of Motorola's clamshell models quickly declined. In 2009 Motorola stepped into the Android adventure with the introduction of the Droid. However, a very good selling phone would never release the company after which it was split up and sold to Google in 2011. In 2014, Google resold the company to Chinese company Lenovo, which still releases phones under the Motorola name, without the valuable telecompatibilities.

Motorola ROKR E1; iPhone ancestor

Motorola has been one of the reasons why Apple released the iPhone. In 2005 Motorola and Apple released the Motorola ROKR E1; a music phone with iTunes. Rumour has it that while the device most resembled an iPod you could call, Apple was so disappointed with the end result that they changed the iPad project they were working on at the time and made a phone first. The iPhone was launched in 2007 and that is seen as the beginning of the end of Motorola.

Motorola Moto-series

Back to today's Motorola. With a single exception, all current models are given the serial name 'Moto'. This subseries consists of Android smartphones with a large screen. It used to carry series including the RAZR, RIZR, KRZR and ROKR but no new models have been released for years. The current product range consists of;

• Moto C - Entry budget models
• Moto E - Low-end series
• Moto G - Midrange series
• Moto X - High-end series
• Moto Z - Flagships with Moto Mod support

Moto Mods

Motorola is one of the few manufacturers still actively releasing semi-modular phones. Instead of removing components from the phone, you can attach modules to the Moto Z Series. These Moto Mods add functionality. Moto Mods are available with an extra battery, with 5G support and with a built-in projector. Most Moto Mods are compatible with each other so you can use it on multiple Z Series models, including a newer model.

Motorola smartwatches

Motorola is responsible for one of the first modern smartwatches; the Moto 360. A round clock with a round screen and at the bottom a horizontal strip; the so-called flat tire. Two versions were to be released, the last of which was to be released in 2015. The smart watches run under Google's Android Wear which has now been renamed Wear OS.