Motorola

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Motorola Inc
Type	Public (NYSE: MOT)
Founded	1928
Headquarters	Schaumburg, Illinois, USA
Key people	Edward Zander, CEO & Chairman
Industry	Telecommunications
Products	Embedded systems Mobile phones Two-Way radios Networking Systems
Revenue	$41.2 billion USD (2006)
Net income	$4.578 billion USD (2005)
Employees	66,000 (12/2006)
Slogan	Hello Moto and also "Intelligence Everywhere"
Website	www.motorola.com

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is an American multinational communications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.

[edit] History

Motorola started as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1928. The name Motorola was adopted in 1947, but the word had been used as a trademark since the 1930s. Founder Paul Galvin came up with the name Motorola when his company started manufacturing car radios. A number of early companies making phonographs, radios, and other audio equipment in the early 20th century used the suffix "-ola," the most famous being Victrola; RCA made a "radiola"; there was also a company that made jukeboxes called Rock-Ola, and a film editing device called a Moviola. The Motorola prefix "motor-" was chosen because the company's initial focus was in automotive electronics.

Most of Motorola's products have been radio-related, starting with a battery eliminator for radios, through the first walkie-talkie in the world, defense electronics, cellular infrastructure equipment, and mobile phone manufacturing. The company was also strong in semiconductor technology, including integrated circuits used in computers. Motorola has been the main supplier for the microprocessors used in Commodore Amiga, Apple Macintosh and Power Macintosh personal computers. The chip used in the latter computers, the PowerPC family, was developed with IBM and in a partnership with Apple (known as the AIM alliance). Motorola also has a diverse line of communication products, including satellite systems, digital cable boxes and modems.

[edit] Company Spinoffs

Motorola developed the first truly global communication network using a set of 66 satelites. The business ambitions behind this project and the need for raising venture capital to fund the project led to the creation of the Iridium company in the late 90's. While the technology was proven to work, the Iridium business model did not survive the dot com downturn and Iridium went bankrupt. Obligations to Motorola and loss of expected revenue caused Motorola to spin off the ON Semiconductor (ONNN) business August 4, 1999, raising for Motorola of about $1.1 Billion.

Further declines in business during 2000 and 2001, caused Motorola to spin off its government and defense business to General Dynamics. The business deal closed September 2001. Thus GD Decision Systems was formed (and later merged with General Dynamics C4 Systems) from Motorola's Integrated Information Systems Group.

On October 6, 2003, Motorola announced that it would spin off its semiconductor product sector into a separate company called Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.. The new company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on July 16th of the following year.

See also: List of Motorola products (including Freescale's semiconductors)

[edit] Quality Systems

The Six Sigma quality system was developed at Motorola even though it became best known through its use by General Electric. It was created by engineer Bill Smith, under the direction of Bob Galvin (son of founder Paul Galvin) when he was running the company. Motorola University is one of many places that provides Six Sigma training.

[edit] Future

Recently, a massive turnaround plan has been executed successfully by CEO Edward Zander. Due to recent layoffs and the spinoff of Freescale Semiconductor, the number of employees working for Motorola has gone from just over 150,000 to approximately 66,000. Motorola has recently been regaining market share in the cellular-phone business from Nokia, Samsung, and others due to stylish new cellular phone designs like the Motorola RAZR V3. The company also unveiled the first phones compatible with Apple Computer's iTunes Store, the Motorola ROKR E1, in September 2005, and the Motorola SLVR in January 2006. Motorola has recently announced its new iRadio music service as a potential substitute for iTunes compatibility, as well as a phone supporting Microsoft's Windows Media format in addition to expanding its product lines with Apple's iTunes, with the new KRZR, SLVR, and RAZR V3i. According to Motorola, they see their cell phones as a media gateway. However, the new MOTOFONE is aimed at entry-level users and developing markets.

With the shifting focus of all telecom equipment manufacturers toward services, Motorola formed a unique joint venture company with Wipro. The company name as WMNetServ will provide managed services and professional service to Motorola customers worldwide.

Motorola sold its Automotive Electronics division to Continental in April 2006 and is proceeding with a policy of streamlining its cell phone business, hoping to take the number one spot from Nokia. Some observers^{[weasel words]} suggested that the company's emphasis on market share was responsible for a drop in net earnings late in 2006.

On November 10, 2006, Motorola and Good Technology announced that the companies have signed a definitive agreement under which Motorola will acquire privately held Good Technology, a leader in enterprise mobile computing software and service.^[1]

On December 21, 2006, Motorola announced its acquisition of Tut Systems.^[2]

On March 30, 2007, Motorola completed its acquisition of Tut Systems.^[3]

On January 9, 2007, Motorola completed its acquisition of Symbol Technologies, Inc. (SBL)^[4]

On February 7, 2007, Motorola completed its acquisition of Netopia (NTPA)^[5]

[edit] Motorola Popularity

Motorola has been the largest single provider of radio equipment for public safety use, and this led to eager adoption by the Amateur Radio community. Motorola Handie-Talkies of the 1950s and early 1960s (along with other Motorola radios) were often loaned or donated to ham groups as part of the Civil Defense program, and when new models came, ham radio operators quickly bought older equipment at surplus sales. This popularity continues to this day.

[edit] Ratings from interest groups

Motorola received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third year of the report.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Trivia

• Motorola was generally known as Ma Batwings to the radio industry, a not-necessarily-complimentary reference to the Ma Bell moniker of the Bell System. In each case, the nickname refers to the dominant position in their respective industries.
• The HT-220 series of Handie-Talkie was used by a higher percentage of public safety agencies than any other single handhold radio type.
• Motorola pioneered the use of sub-audible tones (trademarked as Private Line by Motorola) to control radio equipment. The most common use of these tones is to open the squelch of radios when a certain tone is received, so that users don't have to listen to all of the traffic on their frequency, listening for their own callsign. The most popular use of "subaud" tones in ham radio is to close retransmission systems to any radio not sending the appropriate tone.
• The first radio transceiver to have a "recurring role" in television was the Motran 70 shown several times per episode on the series Adam-12. This was a two-piece radio system with a control head under the dashboard and the actual radio in the trunk (or, later, small enough to mount under the car seat). The markings seen in the show were authentic, installed by the LAPD radio shop.
• The "lunchbox" radio used in the television series Emergency! was supplied by Motorola. The aluminum case was water-resistant, and housed not only the radio but also interfaces for EKG monitors and other medical telemetry equipment.
• The radios used by the California Highway Patrol officers in the television series CHiPs were Motorolas, seen most prominently on the motorcycle units of the show's main characters: Officers Jon Baker and Frank Poncherello.
• Motorola commercial, military and public safety radio equipment uses microphones and speakers of impedance values different than the products of nearly all other manufacturers, as a means of discouraging third-party manufacturers of earplugs, remote microphones, etc.
• Despite rumor, the software necessary to program modern Motorola equipment is available to any user, but the licensing fees are high to discourage "do-it-yourself" radio programming.
• Many ham radio mountaintop repeater systems operate Motorola radios which have been in 24-hour-per-day service, 7 days per week, since the 1960s.
• In the 1970s, at the height of the Quadraphonic audio boom, Motorola manufactured chipsets and semiconductors for Demodulators and Decoders in home audio receivers, by a variety of different audio manufacturers.

[edit] See also

• List of Motorola products

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Motorola official website

• Official MOTOSTORE