Moto X First Smartphone Made in US

Motorola's next flagship phone won't only have sensors that will know when you are going to take a photo or when it is in your pocket, but it will be the first smartphone assembled in the U.S.

During an interview at the All Things D conference, CEO of Motorola Dennis Woodside revealed the company's plans for the long-rumored "Moto X" phone, which will have a OLED screen and will be released later this summer. Woodside wouldn't detail any other specifications of the phone, but said that it will have long battery life and that sensors on it will allow it to know when you are using it.

The phone will be made at Flextronics' 500,000-square foot facility in Fort Worth, Texas, which was once used to make Nokia phones. While the phone will be designed, engineered and assembled in the U.S., not all the components in the phone will be made in the U.S. The processor and screen, for example, will be made overseas.

"There are several business advantages to having our Illinois and California-based designers and engineers much closer to our factory," Motorola said in a statement. "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." Motorola told ABC News that 2,000 jobs will be added by August; Flextronics is busy hiring people now for the new Fort Worth facility.

The Moto X will be the first phone that the company has worked on from start to finish since being acquired by Google in August 2011. Woodside said though that the Motorola unit is still separate from Google and that Motorola is treated like any Android partner. "We're hiring out of Google," Woodside said on stage, "but once you come to Motorola you give up your Google badge. It really is separate."

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he would like to build a phone it the U.S. Apple will begin making one of its iMac computers in the U.S. this summer. Lenovo also began making some of its computers and tablets in North Carolina earlier this year.

While smartphones currently aren't made in the U.S., a report released by Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers on Tuesday revealed that the world's largest smartphone operating systems - Apple's iOS and Google's Android -- are developed in the U.S. According to the report, 88 percent of the world's mobile operating systems are "Made in the USA," compared to five percent in 2005.

Motorola has fallen behind smartphone rivals like Apple and Samsung. However, Woodside believes the Motorola products coming this fall will change that. The Moto X specifically will be carried by various carriers in the U.S., something Motorola hasn't been able to brag about in a long time.

"I'm pretty confident of the products we are going to ship throughout the fall," he said. "They are unlike other things out there."

Source: http://www.news.theusalinks.com/2013/06/03/moto-x-first-smartphone-made-in-us/