telecoms equipment consumer electronics predecessor motorola founded january 4 2011 ; 5 years ago 2011 01 04 as a spin off of motorola headquarters merchandise mart chicago illinois u.s. area served worldwide key people aymar de lencquesaing president and chairman ch n x d ng chairman products mobile phones smartphones smartwatches number of employees 3 466 q3 2014 1 parent google 2011 2014 lenovo 2014 present website motorola.com lenovo.com motorola mobility is a division of lenovo group that develops mobile devices . headquartered in chicago illinois united states the company was formed on january 4 2011 by the split of motorola inc. into two separate companies ; motorola mobility took on the company s consumer oriented product lines including its mobile phone business and its cable modems and set top boxes for digital cable and satellite television services while motorola solutions retained the company s enterprise oriented product lines . the company primarily manufactures smartphones and other mobile devices running the android operating system developed by google inc. ; in august 2011 only several months after the split google acquired motorola mobility for us 12.5 billion . google s stated intent for the purchase was to gain control of motorola mobility s portfolio of patents so it could adequately protect other android vendors from lawsuits . the deal closed in may 2012 after which it also sold its cable modem and set top box business to arris group . under google ownership motorola mobility increased its focus on the entry level smartphone market introduced one of the first android wear smartwatches and also began development on project ara a platform for modular smartphones with interchangeable components . google s ownership of the company would be short lived as it announced in january 2014 that it would sell most of motorola mobility to chinese computer technology firm lenovo for 2.91 billion . the sale which excluded all but 2000 of motorola mobility s patents and the team working on project ara which became part of the main android development staff was completed on october 30 2014 . 2 lenovo disclosed an intent to use its purchase of motorola mobility as a way to expand into the u.s. smartphone market . in january 2016 following the august 2015 merger of lenovo s existing smartphone business with motorola mobility it was announced that the company would begin to phase out the name motorola as a public facing brand replacing it with the moto brand used on most of its recent devices and the vibe brand that originated under lenovo its parent company . however motorola later clarified that the brand is not disappearing but the marketing focus will be on its moto and lenovo s vibe brands whereas the motorola brand will appear on packaging and also through its licensees . contents 1 history 1.1 under google ownership 1.2 under lenovo ownership 1.2.1 integration with lenovo 2 products 2.1 phones 2.1.1 razr 2.1.2 android range 2.1.3 atrix 4g droid bionic xoom and droid razr 2.1.4 moto x 2.1.5 moto g 2.1.6 moto e 2.1.7 nexus 6 moto x pro 2.1.8 droid turbo moto maxx 2.2 smart watches 2.2.1 moto 360 2.3 brand licensing 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit main article motorola the installation of new motorola mobility logo near the main google campus following google s purchase on january 5 2011 motorola inc. was split into two publicly traded companies ; motorola solutions took on the company s enterprise oriented business units while the remaining consumer division was spun off to form motorola mobility . 3 motorola mobility consisted of the mobile devices business which produced smartphones mobile accessories including bluetooth headphones and the home business which produced set top boxes end to end video solutions cordless phones and cable modems . 3 under google ownership edit on august 15 2011 google announced that it would acquire motorola mobility for 12.5 billion pending regulatory approval . 4 5 6 critics viewed google as being a white knight since motorola had recently had a fifth straight quarter of losses . 7 google planned to operate motorola as an independent company . 8 in a post on the company s blog google ceo and co founder larry page revealed that google s acquisition of motorola mobility was a strategic move to strengthen google s patent portfolio ; at the time the company had 17 000 patents with 7 500 more patents pending . 9 10 the expanded portfolio was to defend the viability of its android operating system which had been the subject of numerous patent infringement lawsuits between device vendors and other companies such as apple microsoft and oracle . 9 11 12 on november 17 2011 motorola announced that its shareholders voted in favor of the company s acquisition by google for 12.5 billion . the deal received regulatory approval from the united states department of justice and the european union on february 13 2012 . 13 the deal received subsequent approval from chinese authorities and was completed on may 22 2012 . 14 alongside the completion of the acquisition motorola mobility s ceo sanjay jha was replaced by dennis woodside a former senior vice president at google . 15 on august 13 2012 google announced that it would cut 4 000 employees and close one third of the company s locations mostly outside the united states . 16 on december 19 2012 it was announced that arris group would purchase motorola mobility s cable modem and set top box business for 2.35 billion in a cash and stock transaction . 17 in may 2013 motorola opened a factory in fort worth texas with the intent to assemble customized smartphones in the united states . at its peak the factory employed 3 800 workers . 18 on april 9 2014 following the departure of woodside lead product developer rick osterloh was named the new president of motorola . 19 under google ownership motorola s market share would be boosted by a focus on high quality entry level smartphones aimed primarily at emerging markets ; in the first quarter of 2014 motorola sold 6.5 million phones led by strong sales of its low end moto g especially in markets such as india and in the united kingdom where the company accounted for 6 % of smartphone sales sold in the quarter up from nearly zero . these goals were compounded further by the may 2014 introduction of the moto e a low end device aimed at first time smartphone owners in emerging markets . 20 21 22 23 in may 2014 motorola announced that it would close its fort worth factory by the end of the year citing the high costs of domestic manufacturing in combination with the weak sales of the moto x which was customized and assembled at the plant and the company s increased emphasis on low end devices and emerging markets . 18 under lenovo ownership edit on january 29 2014 google announced it would pending regulatory approval sell motorola mobility to the chinese technology firm lenovo for us 2.91 billion in a cash and stock deal seeing the sale of 750 million in lenovo shares to google . google retained the advanced technologies & projects unit which was integrated into the main android team and all but 2000 of the company s patents . lenovo had prominently disclosed its intent to enter the u.s. smartphone market and had previously expressed interest in acquiring blackberry but was reportedly blocked by the canadian government due to national security concerns . lenovo s ceo yang yuanqing stated that the acquisition of such an iconic brand innovative product portfolio and incredibly talented global team will immediately make lenovo a strong global competitor in smartphones . 24 25 26 27 the acquisition was completed on october 30 2014 . the company remained headquartered in chicago and continued to use the motorola brand but liu jun president of lenovo s mobile device business became the company s chairman . 28 on january 26 2015 owing to its new ownership motorola mobility re launched its product line in china with the local release of the second generation moto x and an upcoming release of the moto g lte and moto x pro a re branded nexus 6 in time for lunar new year . 29 lenovo maintained a hands off approach in regards to motorola s product development ; head designer jim wicks explained that google had very little influence and lenovo has been the same . the company continued to engage in practices it adopted under google such as the use of nearly stock android undercutting competitors pricing while offering superior hardware as further encouraged by lenovo and placing a larger focus on direct to consumer selling of unlocked phones in the united states market as opposed to carrier subsidized versions . 30 on july 28 2015 motorola unveiled three new devices and its first under lenovo ownership the third generation moto g moto x play and moto x style in three separate events . 30 integration with lenovo edit in august 2015 lenovo announced that it would merge its existing smartphone division including design development and manufacturing into the motorola mobility unit . the announcement came in addition to a 3 200 personnel job cut across the entire company . 31 as a result of the change motorola mobility will be responsible for the development and production of its own moto product line as well as lenovo s own vibe range . 32 in january 2016 lenovo announced that the motorola name would be further downplayed in public usage in favor of the moto and vibe brands and that of lenovo . in response to claims by a lenovo executive that only high end devices would be produced under the moto name with low end devices being amalgamated into the vibe brand motorola mobility clarified its plans and explained that it would continue to release low end products under the moto brand including the popular moto g and moto e lines . motorola stated that there would be overlap between the vibe and moto lines in some price points and territories but that both brands would have different identities and experiences . moto devices would be positioned as innovative and trendsetting products and vibe would be a mass market challenger brand . the company went on to say that the motorola legacy is near and dear to us as product designers engineers and motorola employees and clearly it s important to many of you who have had long relationships with us . we plan to continue it under our parent company lenovo . 32 33 34 35 products edit phones edit razr edit black razr v3 since july 2003 motorola released the razr v3 in the third quarter of 2004 . 36 because of its striking appearance and thin profile it was initially marketed as an exclusive fashion phone 37 but within a year its price was lowered and it was wildly successful selling over 50 million units by july 2006 . 38 over the razr four year run motorola sold more than 130 million units becoming the bestselling clamshell phone in the world . motorola released other phones based on the razr design as part of the 4ltr line . these include the pebl u6 slvr l6 slvr l7 more expensive variant of slvr l6 razr v3c cdma razr v3i with upgraded camera and appearance v3x supports 3g technology and has a 2 megapixel camera razr v3xx supports 3.5 g technology and razr maxx v6 supports 3.5 g technology and has a 2 megapixel camera announced on july 2006 . the razr series was marketed until july 2007 when the succeeding motorola razr2 series was released . marketed as a more sleek and more stable design of the razr the razr 2 included more features improved telephone audio quality and a touch sensitive external screen . the new